FAITH -AND 
.HEALTH 


CHARLeS 

ReYNOLDS 

BROWN 


^W-^' 


'^:yk'<^mi: 


:  ■^ii'i-  "C?&^mH 


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mri)  anD  ^tam 


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Faith  and  Health 


BY 


CHARLES  REYNOLDS  BROWN 

AUTUOB  OV 

"xmi  TOima  kait's  affaibs,"  "the  social  msbsasi  oy  the 

MODKBH  PULPIT,"    "THE   MAIN  POINTS,"   AND 
"  THB  STBANOB  WATS  Of  OOD  " 


NEW  YORK 

THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


STACK 
ANNEX 


Copyright,  1910 
By  Thomas  Y.  Ceowbll  &  Company 

Published  January,  1910 


THIRD  PRINTING 


Cities  of  Cfiapters 


I.  The  Heaixng  Miracles  of  Christ  Page  1 

II.  Modern  Faith  Cures  27 

III.  The  Pros  and  Cons  of  Christian  Science        53 

IV.  The  Healino  Power  of  Suggestion  103 
v.  The  Emmanuel  Movement  139 

VI.  The  Gospel  of  Good  Health  169 

VII.  The  Church  and  Disease  205 


preface 


HE  wise  man,  were  he  alive 
to-day,  could  slightly  amend 
his  original  statement  and  feel 
quite  sure  of  winning  general 
assent  —  "  Of  the  making  of 
health  books  there  is  no  end." 
We  find  issuing  from  the  press  a  steady  stream 
of  volumes  written,  some  in  support  of  and 
some  in  opposition  to  "Christian  Science," 
"  The  New  Thought,"  "  The  Emmanuel  Move- 
ment," "  The  Power  of  Suggestion,"  and  all  the 
other  forms  in  which  a  widespread  popular 
interest  is  manifesting  itself. 

The  endeavor  in  these  pages  has  been  to 
bring  together  in  a  single  volume  and  in  simple 
language  some  of  the  main  arguments  which 
may  be  properly  advanced  in  this  general  con- 
tention, and  to  indicate  in  briefer  compass  the 
line  along  which,  in  the  judgment  of  the  author, 
genuine  progress  may  be  expected  in  seeking 
increased  physical  efficiency  through  the  aid  of 
mental  and  spiritual  forces, 
[v] 


preface 

The  larger  part  of  the  material  in  the  sixth 
chapter  was  formerly  used  in  a  little  booklet 
entitled  «  The  Gospel  of  Good  Health,"  pub- 
lished by  The  Pilgrim  Press,  Boston,  in  its 
"Envelope  Series,"  and  it  is  republished  here 
by  their  kind  permission.  It  has  been  freely 
retouched. 


[vi] 


Cl&e  J^eaWng  pHteitm  of  Cl^rijSt 


Ci^e  J^ealtng  JttfraclejS  of  Ci^rfet 


T  is  highly  suggestive  that 
in  the  Greek  New  Testament 
the  word  translated  in  cer- 
tain passages  "to  save"  is 
translated  in  other  passages 
"to  heal"  or  "to  make  whole."  This  would 
seem  to  indicate  that  the  ultimate  purpose  of 
both  these  restorative  processes  is  the  same. 
Salvation  is  wholeness,  soundness,  complete- 
ness of  life.  And  conversely,  for  a  man  to  be 
truly  "in  good  health"  means  not  only  that 
his  digestion,  circulation  and  other  bodily 
functions  are  all  working  properly,  but  that 
he  is  also  upright,  aspiring  and  useful. 

The  one  word  applied  to  both  processes 
also  points  back  to  the  common  source  of  heal- 
ing energy.  The  psalmist  of  old  sang  praises 
to  his  Lord  who  had  forgiven  all  his  iniquities 
and  healed  all  his  diseases.  He  was  sound  in 
his  philosophy,  for  in  the  last  analysis  it  is 
[3] 


!faiti^  and  l^ealti^ 


one  and  the  same  divine  energy  which  operates 
upon  the  body  and  upon  the  soul.  It  is  one 
divine  energy  which  operates,  now  utilizing 
thoughts  and  desires,  impulses  and  confi- 
dences; now  utilizing  fresh  air  and  pure 
water,  wholesome  food  and  chemical  sub- 
stances, useful  exercise  and  congenial  employ- 
ment. In  either  case  we  have  the  same  divine 
energy  at  work  restoring,  up-building  and 
completing  the  life  according  to  a  purpose 
eternally  beneficent. 

It  is  natural,  therefore,  it  is  inevitable,  that 
the  relations  between  religion  and  medicine 
should  be  close.  It  is  altogether  fitting  that 
the  pastor  who  ministers  to  the  moral  life, 
which  in  turn  reacts  upon  physical  health, 
and  the  physician  who  ministers  to  the  body, 
which  in  turn  reacts  upon  the  formation  of 
character,  should  be  on  sympathetic  and  cor- 
dial terms,  each  one  doing  his  own  work,  and 
each  one  doing  it  better  if  he  attempts  only 
that  for  which  he  is  adapted  and  trained.  In 
these  chapters  I  hope  to  indicate  clearly  how 
these  two  arms  of  a  conmaon  service  to  human 
[4] 


Cl^e  J^ealing  0iitatlt^  of  €W^t 

well-being  may  best  be  maintained  in  those 
forms  and  relations  which  shall  be  most  ad- 
vantageous to  the  people  who  are  to  profit  by 
such  a  combined  ministry 

The  Saviour  of  the  soul  is  known  also  as 
the  Great  Physician.  It  is  not  inappropriate, 
therefore,  in  considering  the  relation  of  re- 
ligion to  health  to  speak  first  of  those  acts  in 
His  life  which  are  known  as  His  healing 
miracles.  It  is  inaccurate  and  unfair  to  define 
a  miracle  as  "  a  violation  of  law,"  or  as  a  piece 
of  magic  introduced,  no  one  knows  how,  for 
the  amazement  of  the  people.  A  miracle  is 
a  result  wrought  by  divine  power  according 
to  laws  which  at  present  lie  outside  the  field  of 
ordinary  experience.  In  what  we  call  the 
operation  of  natural  law  we  find  when  we 
look  closely  "  a  divine  purpose  moving  steadily 
across  the  ages,  keeping  its  appointments  with 
foreseen  human  needs"  and  ministering  to 
them  with  diflferences  of  administration,  but 
in  the  same  abiding  spirit  of  intelligent  help- 
fulness. And  in  those  events  called  miracu- 
lous, we  find  this  same  divine  energy  mani- 
[5] 


iffattl^  anD  i^ealti^ 


festing  itself  according  to  methods  which 
lie  at  present  outside  the  field  of  ordinary 
experience. 

Now,  close-knit  with  the  whole  narrative 
of  Christ's  life  is  the  record  of  the  fact  that 
those  who  saw  Him,  knew  Him,  companied 
with  Him,  believed  beyond  a  perad venture 
that  He  wrought  miracles  of  healing  upon  the 
sick  folk  of  that  day.  He  called  them  His 
"works"  —  being  what  He  was,  these  were  the 
natural  expressions  of  His  incomparable  energy. 
He  called  them  '  signs "  —  they  pointed  to 
something  beyond  and  more  significant  than 
themselves.  He  used  them  somewhat  freely 
at  the  opening  of  His  ministry,  but  more  and 
more  sparingly  as  time  went  on.  He  used 
them  to  draw  the  attention  of  the  people  to 
His  message,  for  no  teacher  can  teach  effec- 
tively without  attention.  He  used  them  as 
symbols  of  the  entire  work  of  recovery  which 
He  came  to  perform  on  behalf  of  the  life  of 
the  race. 

We  are  not  surprised  to  find  this  record  of 
unusual  occurrences  in  the  narrative  of  the 
[6] 


Cl^e  l^ealing  0iitaclt^  of  €W^t 

life  of  Christ.  Jesus  himself  was  an  unusual 
occurrence.  His  teachings  in  their  insight 
and  comprehensiveness,  in  their  poise  and 
balance,  rank  so  far  above  the  teachings  of  all 
other  great  religious  leaders;  His  life  itself 
was  so  unique  in  its  quality  and  in  its  abun- 
dance, that  we  are  prepared  in  advance  to 
believe  that  the  natural  order  may  have  had 
some  response  to  make  to  Him  which  it  does 
not  make  to  other  individuals.  And  when  we 
find  these  occurrences  described  in  the  serious, 
sober  statements  of  such  trustworthy  men  as 
those  who  furnish  us  the  material  contained 
in  the  four  Gospels,  some  of  them  actual  eye- 
witnesses of  the  events  described,  we  are  ready 
to  give  most  serious  consideration  to  these 
claims  put  forward  as  to  the  healing  min- 
istry  of   Christ. 

More  than  that,  it  was  a  time  of  moral 
crisis  in  the  history  of  the  world.  Judaism, 
the  best  there  was  in  the  religious  life  of  that 
day,  was  weak  through  the  Pharisaical  and 
Rabbinical  perversions  which  had  fastened 
upon  it.  The  pagan  cults  of  Greece  and  Rome 
[7] 


fatti^  and  l^ealti^ 


were  openly  scorned  by  the  more  intelligent 
people  and  were  distrusted  by  the  masses. 
The  morals  of  the  world  were  becoming 
hideous.  The  gladiatorial  games  and  other 
forms  of  amusement  current  were  such  as  to 
indicate  that  the  race  might  be  almost  on  the 
verge  of  moral  insanity.  Civilization  itself 
seemed  to  be  trembling  on  the  brink  of  ruin. 
It  was  of  the  highest  importance  that  when 
the  rude  barbarians  of  the  north  should  come 
down  and  conquer  Rome,  they  should  find 
there  in  the  once  mighty  empire  a  virile  and 
helpful  form  of  religion,  whose  inherent 
vitality  would  be  able  to  conquer  their  rugged 
natures.  To  gain  the  attention  of  the  world, 
and  to  establish  Christianity  in  the  popular 
confidence,  this  unusual  manifestation  of  the 
divine  energy  seemed  to  be  demanded. 

The  day  has  gone  when  the  healing  miracles 
of  Christ  can  be  dismissed  with  a  smile  of 
pity  or  with  a  look  of  scorn.  Certain  people 
used  to  say  jauntily  that  they  were  "impossi- 
ble," but  we  have  been  surprised  so  many 
times  in  the  last  few  decades  by  the  discovery 
[8] 


Cl^e  l^ealtng  putaclt^  of  €W^t 

of  unsuspected  potencies  in  this  world  of  ours, 
that  thoughtful  people  have  become  very 
guarded  now  in  asserting  what  is  or  what  is 
not  "impossible."  We  have  been  told,  with 
an  air  of  finality,  that  the  healing  miracles 
of  Christ  were  "  contrary  to  the  laws  of  nature." 
But  what  are  "the  laws  of  nature"?  Let 
any  one  name  them,  and  when  he  lets  his 
voice  fall,  ask  him  if  he  has  named  them  all ! 
If  he  is  a  man  of  sense,  he  will  reply,  "No, 
I  have  only  named  those  which  are  known  to 
me  at  this  time."  Well  and  good !  No  wise 
man  to-day  would  undertake  to  say  that  he 
had  named  or  that  he  could  name  all  the  laws 
of  nature.  Here  in  the  first  century  was  One 
who  knew  more  about  certain  laws  and  about 
certain  mysterious  forces  than  we  seem  to 
know  at  this  time,  and  He  was  able  to  exer- 
cise an  unwonted  potency.  When  He  spoke. 
His  word  was  with  power;  and  when  He 
worked  He  accomplished  results  of  healing 
according  to  laws  which  lie  outside  the  field 
of  ordinary  experience.  In  every  case  it  is 
a  question   of  evidence,   and   until   we  have 


faitt^  anh  l^ealti^ 


some  better  evidence  upon  which  to  deny 
these  narratives  of  healing  than  the  mere 
dogmatic  assertion  of  those  who  choose  to 
reject  them  because  of  the  marvelous  element 
in  them,  we  are  warranted  in  retaining  olir 
faith. 

"  Jesus  healed  many  that  were  sick  of  divers 
diseases,"  —  this  is  the  hard  fact  which  criti- 
cism has  been  unable  to  explain  away.  How 
did  He  do  it  ?  We  may  not  be  able  to  bring  in 
a  final  and  exhaustive  answer  to  this  question, 
but  let  us  go  as  far  as  we  can  along  that  road. 
You  will  find  in  almost  every  case  He  added 
to  that  impulse  toward  recovery,  which  causes 
the  cut  finger  to  heal,  the  broken  bone  to  knit, 
the  system  overloaded  with  some  foreign  or 
useless  substance  to  cast  it  ofiF  —  He  added 
to  that  universal  impulse  toward  recovery, 
which  we  recognize  as  one  of  the  resident 
forces  in  the  world  of  life,  the  power  of  His 
own  wise  and  loving  personality.  He  went 
further  than  that  —  He  aimed  to  secure  the 
co-operation  of  the  expectant  hope  and  con- 
fident trust  of  the  patient  himself.  He  worked 
[10] 


Ci^e  l^ealtng  jHiraclejs  of  €\)ti^t 

His  signs  in  an  atmosphere  of  trust  and  upon 
the  subjects  of  an  heroic  and  resolute  faith. 
When  He  found  himself  in  an  atmosphere  of 
unbelief  and  confronted  with  those  who  had 
no  faith,  "He  could  do  there  no  mighty 
work." 

How  prominent  the  Gospel  narratives  make 
this  element  of  faith !  The  centurion  said, 
"Speak  the  word  and  my  servant  will  be 
healed ! "  Jesus  replied,  "  I  have  not  found 
such  faith  in  Israel";  and  the  servant  was 
healed  in  that  hour.  Two  blind  men  followed 
him  saying,  "Thou  Son  of  David,  have  mercy 
upon  us."  He  said,  "  Believe  ye  that  I  am  able 
to  do  this?"  They  replied,  "Yea,  Lord." 
And  He  touched  their  eyes,  saying,  "  According 
to  your  faith  be  it  unto  you,"  and  their  eyes 
were  opened.  He  said  to  the  palsied  man, 
"Rise,  take  up  thy  bed  and  walk,"  and 
when  the  sufferer  showed  his  faith  by  trying 
to  obey  this  summons,  by  that  faith  he  was 
healed. 

Jesus  rubbed  clay  upon  the  eyes  of  a  blind 
man  and  said  to  him,  "Go  to  the  pool  of 
[11] 


fam  anu  l^ealtli 


Siloam,  and  wash."  The  man  showed  his 
faith  by  feeling  his  way  along  the  difficult 
streets  toward  the  pool,  and  when  he  washed 
his  eyes,  he  received  sight.  Ten  lepers  came 
to  Him  for  healing,  and  Jesus  said,  "  Go  show 
yourselves  to  the  priests."  They  showed 
their  faith  by  starting  immediately  to  secure 
a  clean  bill  of  health  from  those  officials, 
"and  as  they  went  they  were  healed."  One 
of  them  returned  to  thank  Christ  for  his  new- 
found health,  and  Jesus  said  to  him,  "Thy 
faith  has  made  thee  whole."  Jesus  said  to 
the  man  with  the  withered  hand,  "Stretch 
forth  thy  hand";  and  the  sufferer,  hearing 
those  accents  of  authority,  of  love,  and  of 
conj&dence,  showed  his  faith  by  making  the 
brave  attempt;  and  in  that  act  of  faith  his 
hand  was  restored.  When  Jesus  went  to  the 
home  of  Jairus,  where  the  little  girl  was  sick 
unto  death,  He  put  the  people,  who  were 
weeping  and  wailing  in  the  sick  room,  all  out. 
He  said  to  the  father,  "  Be  not  afraid,  only  be- 
lieve; thy  daughter  is  not  dead,  but  sleepeth." 
He  took  with  Him  into  the  sick  room  Peter, 
[12] 


Cl^e  i^ealing  jEttacleiS  of  €\)vi0t 

James  and  John,  His  three  choicest  disciples; 
and  there  in  that  atmosphere  of  faith  and  hope 
and  love,  He  healed  the  child. 

These  are  well  known  samples  of  His  general 
metHbd.  The  fact  that  in  some  instances 
faith  on  the  part  of  the  sufferer  is  not  men- 
tioned is  not  conclusive  evidence  that  no 
faith  was  aroused  or  utilized.  The  argument 
from  silence  touching  some  detail  in  the  narra- 
tive means  little  in  the  face  of  the  fact  that 
in  so  many  cases  of  healing  it  is  made  promi- 
nent. The  narratives  are  all  brief  —  they  had 
to  be  brief  in  order  to  bring  the  story  of  Christ's 
life  within  that  small  compass,  where  it  can 
be  read  entire  in  a  few  hours.  And  the  indi- 
cations of  His  habit  of  securing  the  co-operation 
of  expectant  faith  on  the  part  of  the  sufferer 
with  the  mighty  energy  of  His  own  wise  and 
loving  personality  are  so  numerous  as  to  give 
us  reliable  and  most  valuable  insight  into  His 
prevailing  method. 

It  is  also  important  to  observe  that  many, 
perhaps  the  larger  part,  of  the  maladies  He 
healed  were  plainly  nervous  or  mental  in  their 
[13] 


fatt]^  atiD  f  ealti^ 


origin  and  character.  You  will  find  these 
sufferers  referred  to  in  the  Gospels  as  per- 
sons "possessed  of  devils,"  or  as  "demoniacs." 
It  was  not  a  time  when  the  world  knew  much 
about  scientific  diagnosis.  When  the  simple 
hearted  people  of  that  day  saw  a  human  per- 
sonality apparently  overborne  by  some  hostile 
influence,  they  decided  that  it  must  be  the 
work  of  the  Evil  One.  "He  has  a  devil," 
they  said.  It  seemed  to  them  a  case  where 
an  evil  personality  had  taken  up  his  abode  in 
the  mind  and  heart  of  the  sufferer. 

When  we  come  to  examine  carefully  the 
symptoms  recorded  we  would  to-day  bring  in 
quite  a  different  diagnosis.  There  are  several 
of  these  cases  which  are  made  especially  promi- 
nent in  the  four  Gospels.  There  was  the  man 
in  the  synagogue  at  Capernaum  who  cried 
out  during  the  service  saying,  "What  have  we 
to  do  with  thee,  thou  Jesus  of  Nazareth !  Let 
us  alone ! "  We  would  call  such  a  man  to-day 
mentally  unbalanced  or  insane. 

There  was  the  man  of  Gadara  who  believed 
that  a  legion  of  devils  infested  his  personality. 
[14] 


Cl^e  f  ealtng  0iitaclt^  of  Ci^rtist 

When  Jesus  asked  him  his  name,  he  replied 
in  wild,  incoherent  fashion,  "Legion."  He 
believed  that  a  whole  Roman  legion  of  devils 
had  taken  up  their  abode  in  his  troubled 
mind.  He  showed  an  unnatural  and  an  un- 
governable strength,  "breaking  the  fetters 
and  chains"  with  which  men  had  bound  him. 
He  ran  wild  in  the  mountains  and  among  the 
tombs,  cutting  himself  upon  the  stones.  At 
times  "he  was  exceedingly  fierce  so  that  no 
man  could  pass  that  way,"  and  would  cast 
aside  all  his  clothing.  When  Jesus  found  him 
he  was  naked.  We  find  him  later,  after  he 
was  restored,  "clothed  and  in  his  right  mind." 
We  would  call  such  a  man  to-day  insane,  but 
the  people  of  that  early  time  said  that  he  was 
possessed  of  devils. 

There  was  the  demoniac  boy  at  the  foot 
of  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration.  When 
he  was  suffering  from  his  malady,  he  fell  to 
the  earth  and  foamed  at  the  mouth.  He 
writhed  as  if  some  devil  was  "tearing  him." 
His  trouble  was  intermittent  —  it  would  "  take 
him  and  then  leave  him,"  the  father  of  the 
[15] 


mt^  and  J^ealti^ 


boy  stated.  We  should  call  such  an  aflfliction 
to-day  epilepsy. 

There  was  also  in  other  cases  the  paralysis 
of  a  single  organ  or  function  —  the  woman, 
who  had  "the  spirit  of  infirmity  for  eighteen 
years,"  could  not  lift  herself  up.  There  was 
a  man  with  "a  dumb  spirit,"  as  we  should 
say  to-day  a  man  rendered  mute  by  the  para- 
lyzed condition  of  the  vocal  organs.  In  other 
cases  there  was  the  inability  to  perform  some 
certain  function,  and  this  was  attributed  to 
a  particular  kind  of  devil. 

Now  in  the  face  of  these  mysterious  afflic- 
tions of  a  mental  or  nervous  nature,  afflictions 
which  still  puzzle  the  wisest  physicians  even 
to  this  day,  we  are  not  surprised  that  in  this 
earlier  time,  unused  to  anything  like  scien- 
tific diagnosis,  the  people  should  hastily  con- 
clude that  these  insane  persons,  or  epileptics, 
or  those  who  sufiFered  the  paralysis  of  some 
particular  function,  had  been  overcome  by 
some  hostile  personality  which  they  called  a 
demon  or  a  devil.  And  Christ  himself,  what- 
ever He  may  have  thought  of  the  diagnosis 
[16] 


Ci^e  l^ealing  iHimclejs  of  Ci^rtet 

of  that  day,  —  whether  He  shared  in  the 
scientific  limitations  of  that  period  as  He  shared 
in  so  many  of  the  limitations  of  the  common 
life  when  He  took  upon  himself  the  form  of  a 
servant,  or  whether  He  deemed  it  best  to  ap- 
proach these  sufferers  sympathetically  by  using 
the  forms  of  speech  with  which  they  were 
familiar  in  dealing  with  those  mental  disorders, 
—  Christ  himself  habitually  used  the  same 
expressions.  Whatever  view  Jesus  may  have 
held.  He  healed  many  of  these  nervous  and 
mental  sufferers  by  the  wholesome  influence 
of  His  own  personality  as  He  brought  it  to  bear 
upon  their  need. 

It  should  also  be  noted  that  He  openly 
recognized  the  fact  that  some  diseases  have 
their  roots  in  the  moral  nature  —  that  they 
have  been  induced  by  wrongdoing.  A  new 
mode  of  life  would  be  demanded  for  a  per- 
manent cure,  and  a  new  spirit  and  purpose 
would  be  needed  if  He  were  to  undertake  the 
recovery  of  such  a  sufferer  with  any  hope  of 
success.  When  the  palsied  man  borne  by 
four  was  brought  to   Christ,   the  first  word 

[n]    . 


faitt)  auD  i^ealti^ 


spoken  was  not  addressed  to  his  physical 
condition  or  bodily  interests  —  it  went  much 
deeper:  "Son,  thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee." 
Afterward  the  man  was  enabled  by  the  healing 
power  of  Chirst  to  take  up  his  bed  and  walk. 
When  Jesus  had  healed  the  impotent  man 
at  the  pool  of  Bethesda,  He  said  to  him, 
"  Behold,  thou  art  made  whole !  Sin  no  more 
lest  a  worse  thing  come  upon  thee."  Where 
the  source  of  the  trouble  lay  in  some  moral 
delinquency,  and  where  the  healing  was  with- 
held by  an  unwillingness  on  the  part  of  the 
sufferer  to  "about  face"  in  his  fundamental 
purpose,  then  the  One  who  came  to  forgive 
our  iniquities  and  to  heal  our  diseases  dealt 
frankly  with  that  moral  lack. 

It  is  also  to  be  noted  that  Jesus  never  worked 
His  cures  for  pay.  He  was  in  no  sense  a  pro- 
fessional physician  engaged  in  a  lucrative 
practice.  He  would  not  confuse  the  issue  by 
undertaking  to  combine  the  profitable  prac- 
tice of  medicine  with  His  high  office  of  spiritual 
leadership.  He  would  not  use  His  marvelous 
power  to  change  stones  into  bread,  which  in 
[18] 


Cl^e  l^ealfng  iHfmclejS  of  Cl^rtjSt 

a  stony  country  like  Palestine  would  have 
been  a  most  rewarding  line  of  effort.  He  was 
quite  unlike  some  of  the  modern  professional 
healers  who  undertake  in  the  disregard  they 
show  for  the  higher  interests  at  stake  to  live 
by  bread  alone.  He  brought  into  the  field 
uniformly  a  pure,  unselfish  personality  as  He 
went  about  preaching  the  Gospel  of  the  King- 
dom and  healing  many  that  were  sick  of  divers 
diseases. 

Jesus  furthermore  avoided  all  display.  The 
One  who  refused  to  cast  Himself  down  un- 
hurt from  the  pinnacle  of  the  temple,  as 
possibly  He  might  have  done,  would  not 
parade  His  acts  of  healing  upon  the  street 
corners  or  sound  a  trumpet  before  Him  to 
advertise  His  success.  He  said  on  many  oc- 
casions, when  some  sufferer  had  been  healed, 
"See  that  thou  tell  no  man."  He  did  not  de- 
sire that  His  fame  as  a  healer  should  be  widely 
heralded.  He  was  unwilling  to  be  regarded 
mainly  as  a  great  wonder  worker;  He  had 
more   serious   interests   at   heart.     He   knew 

also  that  it  would  be  inadvisable  for  the  suf- 
[19] 


fattl^  and  l^ealti^ 


ferer  who  had  been  healed  to  be  continually 
calling  the  attention  of  others  to  his  wonderful 
recovery.  Thus  Jesus  worked  unselfishly  and 
quietly,  seeking  ever  to  maintain  the  most 
wholesome  conditions  for  the  patients  who 
were  being  treated. 

Now  it  seems  to  me,  as  we  study  carefully 
the  records  of  these  cures,  we  will  find  that 
Jesus  has  here  suggested  and  formulated  for 
us  the  best  conditions  for  healing  the  sick  by 
psychic  methods  in  those  functional  disorders 
of  nervous  or  mental  origin,  where  such  treat- 
ment has  peculiar  value.  He  took  pains  to 
awaken  and  encourage  an  expectant  faith  on 
the  part  of  the  patient.  "  Have  faith  in  God." 
"All  things  are  possible  to  him  that  believeth." 
"Fear  not;  only  believe."  These  are  the 
words  He  used  frequently  in  addressing 
those  who  came  to  Him  for  relief.  Faith  is 
that  attitude  of  mind,  of  heart  and  of  will, 
which  gives  substance  to  the  thing  hoped  for, 
which  stands  ready  to  accept  as  absolute 
verity  some  valuable  and  wholesome  sugges- 
tion. This  was  the  mood  on  the  part  of  the 
[20] 


Cl^e  l^ealing  0iitacW  of  Cl^rtjSt 

patient  in  which  His  signs  were  commonly 
wrought. 

He  also  endeavored  to  secure  a  sympathetic 
and  helpful  atmosphere  around  the  patient. 
He  put  out  the  wallers  and  the  weepers  where 
He  found  Himself  unable  to  silence  them.  He 
encouraged  the  members  of  the  family  to  be- 
lieve that  a  recovery  was  possible.  When  the 
father  of  the  epileptic  boy  said,  "  If  thou  canst 
do  anything,"  Jesus  replied,  "If  thou  canst 
believe;  all  things  are  possible  to  him  that 
believeth."  He  took  with  Him  —  the  fact  is 
mentioned  in  a  number  of  instances,  and  the 
same  thing  occurred  no  doubt  in  many  others 
—  His  three  most  trustworthy  and  experienced 
disciples,  Peter  and  James  and  John.  They 
had  seen  Him  heal  the  sick,  and  they  firmly 
believed  that  entire  success  could  be  achieved 
in  any  case  He  undertook. 

And  then,  most  significant  of  all,  Jesus 
added  to  the  faith  of  the  person,  and  to  the 
faith  of  his  friends,  and  to  that  healing  im- 
pulse   toward    recovery    resident    in    human 

nature  and  constantly  at  work  on  our  behalf 
[21] 


ifatti^  anti  l^ealtl^ 


until  overborne  by  the  weight  of  a  disease  it 
cannot  throw  off  —  He  added  the  reinforce- 
ment of  His  own  pure,  wise,  unselfish  and  lov- 
ing personality.  His  purpose,  His  desire.  His 
will  was  to  make  men  whole.  The  full  strength 
of  that  mighty  tide  of  redemptive  love  flowed 
around  and  in  upon  those  who  brought  their 
ills  to  Him  in  expectant  faith. 

When  you  see  Him  and  hear  His  words, 
when  you  taste  the  quality  of  His  life  and 
witness  the  character  there  revealed,  you  find 
it  not  hard  to  believe  that  He  thus  wrought  on 
behalf  of  suffering  humanity.  I  am  aware 
that  there  are  those  who  think  these  narra- 
tives of  healing  belong  only  in  the  stained  glass 
windows  of  some  medieval  cathedral,  or  in 
the  mystic  lines  of  some  lovely  poem,  — that 
they  have  no  place  in  the  sober  prose  of  actual 
history.  I  cannot  hold  with  them.  I  not  only 
accept  them  as  veritable  history,  but  I  regard 
them  as  abiding  symbols  of  that  great  tide  of 
divine  helpfulness  which  is  flowing  yet,  and  is 
to  flow  on  forever  for  human  relief. 

** Violations  of  natural  law"?  Nay,  rather 
[22] 


Clfte  l^ealtng  piiutW  of  Ci^n'jst 

the  glorious  addition  of  another  force  which 
changed  the  possibihties  in  the  situation  as 
men  sensed  it  before  His  coming.  It  is  possi- 
ble for  any  intelligent  man  to  approach  some 
bit  of  sandy  desert,  where  by  the  operation  of 
natural  law  nothing  of  value  has  ever  grown, 
and  by  skillful  irrigation,  and  by  the  scattering 
of  a  few  seeds  of  life,  to  cause  it  to  blossom 
like  the  rose.  The  course  of  nature  had  never 
produced  anything  there  but  sagebrush.  It 
might  seem  to  a  resident  prairie  dog  that  a 
miracle  had  been  wrought,  but  the  result  was 
attained  according  to  law  by  the  introduction 
of  a  new  measure  of  energy  and  intelligence. 
Now,  if  an  ordinary  man  can  thus  change 
"  the  course  of  nature "  in  that  particular 
barren  field,  and  cause  nature  to  do  what  she 
would  not  have  done  but  for  his  approach, 
what  shall  we  say  in  the  field  of  human  bet- 
terment, physical  and  moral,  when  such  an 
one  as  Jesus  of  Nazareth  makes  His  august 
approach ! 

In  these  chapters  I  hope  to  bring  out,  if  I 
may,  the  perennial  significance  of  all  this  as 
[23] 


f  atti^  anD  l^ealtl^ 


it  bears  upon  our  modern  needs.  I  would 
strive  to  help  each  one  to  release  in  his  mind 
and  experience  the  universal  and  eternal  Christ 
from  the  narrower  limitations  which  in  our 
thought  belong  to  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  The 
significance  of  His  life  then  seemed  merely 
local  and  temporary,  but  the  same  Spirit  that 
was  in  Him,  the  Spirit  of  the  eternal  Christ, 
now  sustains  universal  and  cosmic  relations. 
Would  that  each  one  might  know  in  some 
more  vital  way  that  the  help  of  the  ever-present 
Christ  who  thus  healed  men  of  old  is  still 
available  for  health,  for  guidance,  and  for 
moral  recovery.  Make  your  alliance  with  the 
Unseen  and  Eternal  an  immediate  and  an 
available  alliance  !  Strive,  if  you  will,  to  make 
it  an  alliance  helpful  on  the  physical  as  well 
as  on  the  moral  levels  of  your  personal  life. 
It  may  be  that  as  a  result  of  this  larger  and 
bolder  venture  of  faith,  you,  too,  will  say  of 
some  high  hour  of  privilege,  "  We  never  saw  it 
in  this  fashion." 

In  those  days  when  the  cable  roads  were  in 
use  in  certain  hilly  cities,  one  would  often  see 
[24] 


Cl^e  l^ealtng  jmiracle^  of  Ci^rttt 

a  boy  on  his  bicycle  holding  on  at  the  rear  of 
a  street  car  and  thus  being  towed  up  the  steep- 
est hill  by  the  mightier  force.  The  boy  still 
had  one  of  his  hands  on  the  handle  bars  and 
his  feet  upon  the  pedals  to  guide  his  wheel 
and  to  maintain  his  poise,  but  now  his  puny 
strength  was  vastly  reinforced  by  the  fact 
that  he  had  laid  hold  upon  the  strength  of  the 
powerful  engines  away  yonder  in  the  power 
house  which  were  moving  the  cables  and 
thus  moving  the  cars  all  over  the  city  —  and 
incidentally  helping  the  small  boy  in  his  prog- 
ress up  the  hill. 

It  is  possible  for  any  one,  if  he  will  only 
have  it  so,  to  realize  that  in  the  deep  places  of 
his  own  soul,  wh6re  he  has  not  been  accus- 
tomed to  go,  in  those  sections  of  his  inner 
life  which  he  has  rarely  visited,  there  is  a 
mighty  energy  constantly  available  for  his 
individual  needs.  It  is  the  same  energy  which 
of  old  caused  the  morning  stars  to  sing  together, 
and  the  sons  of  God  to  shout  for  joy.  It  is 
the  same  energy  which  moves  the  planets  in 
their  courses,  and  has  within  its  holy  keeping 
[25] 


mtti  and  t^ealtl^ 


all  these  cosmic  interests  even  to  this  hour.  It 
is  the  same  energy  which  spoke  and  wrought, 
healed  and  loved  in  Jesus  Christ.  And  that 
same  energy  of  the  living  and  loving  Christ, 
beneficent  and  redemptive  ever,  is  still  opera- 
tive and  available  to  the  reach  of  expectant 
faith. 


[26] 


jHonem  fyit^  curejs 


II 


f^o^nn  fait\)  €ntt^ 


N  the  preceding  chapter  the 
healing  miracles  of  Christ 
were  discussed.  We  seemed 
to  find  there  an  adequate 
occasion  for  some  unusual 
manifestation  of  the  divine  energy  in  the  most 
significant  moral  movement  in  history,  —  the 
introduction  of  Christianity.  We  found  a 
great  personality  upon  the  scene,  —  Jesus  of 
Nazareth;  and  His  speech  and  His  character. 
His  expanding  and  abiding  influence,  were 
such  that  we  were  led  to  feel  that  the  natural 
order  might  not  inappropriately  have  a  re- 
sponse to  make  to  Him  which  it  does  not  make 
to  other  individuals.  We  found  that  these  won- 
ders of  healing  were  wrought  in  the  spirit  of 
holy  love,  without  display  and  with  no  thought 
of  compensation.  We  found  the  record  of  them 
contained    in    narratives    composed    by    men 

honest  and  trustworthy,  narratives  which  give 
[29] 


f  attl^  anti  i^ealtl^ 


abundant  evidence  of  being  sober  and  accu- 
rate. We  found  that  these  wonders  were 
utilized  as .  symbols  of  the  recovery  and  re- 
newal of  the  moral  life  of  the  race,  and  thus 
became  a  significant  part  of  this  whole  mighty 
movement.  And  we  seemed  to  find  good  rea- 
sons for  attributing  to  Jesus  Christ  a  power 
altogether  unique  in  ministering  to  human 
ills. 

In  the  very  last  address  He  made  to  His 
disciples,  we  find  these  extraordinary  words, 
"  He  that  believeth  on  me,  the  works  that  I  do 
shall  he  do  also,  and  greater  works  than  these." 
This  statement  seems  to  open  the  door  for  an 
indefinite  extension  of  these  wonders.  It  has 
been  so  accepted  by  thousands  of  earnest  men 
and  women.  We  find  down  through  the  cen- 
turies of  Christian  history,  in  varying  measure, 
the  claim  that  this  miraculous  healing  power 
is  still  operating.  It  is  in  regard  to  these  more 
modern  faith  cures  that  I  wish  to  speak  in 
this  chapter. 

We  discover  in  the  stories  of  the  medieval 
saints  a  great  mass  of  this  material.  When 
[30] 


the  Roman  Catholic  Church  used  to  discuss 
the  question  of  canonizing  some  candidate  for 
the  sainthood,  inquiry  was  made  not  only  as 
to  the  character  and  the  record  of  usefulness 
of  the  individual,  but  also  as  to  whether  or  not 
he  worked  wonders  during  his  lifetime,  and 
whether  or  not  his  bones,  his  garments,  or 
other  relics,  after  he  was  gone,  had  been 
credited  with  miracles. 

It  was  a  wonder-loving  period  in  the  world's 
history.  It  was  a  time  when  the  habit  of  accu- 
rate discrimination  between  poetry  and  prose, 
between  sentiment  and  sense,  was  not  promi- 
nent. "The  readiness  to  assent  to  every 
slightest  indication  of  anything  supernatural 
within  the  hallowed  precincts  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  was  universally  reckoned  a 
virtue."  And  the  coming  into  the  church  at 
that  time  of  great  numbers  of  pagans,  with  their 
keen  interest  in  the  magical  rather  than  in 
the  moral  aspects  of  religion,  created  an  un- 
usual demand  for  wonders  to  be  wrought  in 
the  name  of  religion.  And  here  as  every- 
where, demand  had  a  tendency  to  create  sup- 
[31] 


fait})  anD  f  ealtl^ 


ply,  and  so  the  wonders,  or  at  least  the  stories 
of  wonders  innumerable,  were  forthcoming. 
When  one  reads  the  lives  of  the  medieval 
saints,  he  finds  this  element  most  prominent. 

And  to  a  much  less  degree,  we  find  the  same 
phenomena  in  certain  quarters  in  our  own  day. 
Some  of  the  most  notable  have  been  witnessed 
at  a  little  town  called  Lourdes  in  the  south  of 
France.  It  is  an  insignificant  village,  but  in 
the  grotto  there,  it  is  said,  the  Virgin  Mary 
appeared  to  a  peasant  girl  in  the  year  1858. 
A  church  has  been  built  above  the  grotto,  and 
thousands  of  people  have  made  their  pilgrim- 
ages to  the  place  to  pray  for  healing  and  to 
drink  of  the  waters.  Hundreds  of  them  have 
been  healed.  You  will  find  there  an  inter- 
esting collection  of  canes  and  crutches  thrown 
aside  by  those  who  had  been  so  restored  as 
to  have  no  further  use  for  them. 

On  this  side  of  the  water  also  we  find  phe- 
nomena akin  to  those  witnessed  at  Lourdes. 
In  the  Church  of  St.  Anne  de  Beaupre,  not  far 
from  Quebec,  there  is  a  similar  shrine  and  a 
similar  collection  of  canes  and  crutches  left 
[32] 


by  cripples  who  have  been  miraculously 
healed  by  prayer  and  faith.  And  many  are  the 
stories  of  various  forms  of  disease  which  have 
been  cured  by  faith  exercised  there  by  certain 
sufferers. 

In  our  own  country  Dr.  CuUis  of  Boston,  a 
man  whose  church  and  hospital  I  have  visited 
repeatedly,  and  whose  meetings  I  have  at- 
tended, came  to  have  a  wide  reputation  as  a 
faith  healer.  He  used  to  hold  on  Beacon  Hill, 
in  the  very  center  of  Boston  culture,  and 
within  gunshot  of  the  full  strength  of  the  ration- 
alism of  Harvard  University,  each  year,  a  mid- 
winter convention  where  the  speaking  and  the 
praying  bore  mainly  upon  the  entire  sanctifica- 
tion  of  the  spiritual  life  and  the  healing  of  dis- 
ease through  faith.  Dr.  A.  B.  Simpson  of 
Brooklyn,  formerly  of  the  Presbyterian  minis- 
try, now  at  the  head  of  what  is  known  as  the 
Christian  Alliance,  has  been  working  along 
the  same  lines.  His  followers  call  themselves 
"  Fourfolders,"  —  they  believe  in  Christ  as 
Saviour,  Sanctifier,  Healer  and  Coming  King, 

for  they  look  for  the  speedy  and  visible  return 
[33] 


f  attl^  anb  i^ealtl^ 


of  Christ  to  earth.  In  the  same  class  we  find 
Dr.  Dowie,  recently  deceased,  of  the  Zion 
movement,  who  by  his  public  addresses  and 
by  his  little  paper,  "Leaves  of  Healing,"  cir- 
culated by  thousands  of  copies,  has  spoken  to 
a  wide  circle  of  people  in  all  parts  of  Christen- 
dom on  the  subject  of  healing  through  faith. 
I  have  been  present  in  meetings  led  by  Dr. 
CuUis,  by  Dr.  Simpson,  and  by  Dr.  Dowie, 
where  each  one  of  these  men  called  up  certain 
people  from  the  audience  to  testify  as  to  their 
having  been  healed  from  certain  diseases 
through  their  faith  in  God. 

Now  what  shall  intelligent,  discriminating 
people  say  to  all  this  ?  We  cannot  sweep  it  all 
aside  with  a  wave  of  the  hand  and  a  curl  of 
the  lip,  calling  it  mere  ignorant  superstition, 
or  deception  and  fraud.  Take  into  considera- 
tion, as  you  must,  all  the  failures  —  and  they 
form  a  pathetic  array  when  you  inquire  closely. 
The  crutches,  brought  by  suffering  cripples  to 
Lourdes  and  to  St.  Anne  de  Beaupre,  to 
CuUis,  to  Simpson,  and  to  Dowie,  and  carried 
away  again  because  they  were  still  needed,  are 
[34] 


naturally  not  in  evidence,  although  there  are 
enough  of  them  in  the  world  to  load  a  ship. 
No  public  testimony  meetings  are  ever  held 
where  the  people  who  have  tried  to  be  cured 
by  faith  and  have  failed  are  invited  to  speak. 
If  there  were,  these  sufferers  would  be  reluc- 
tant to  confess  their  failure,  although  they 
would  outnumber  the  others  a  hundred  to  one 
if  they  should  all  appear.  But  taking  all  these 
failures  into  consideration,  there  still  remains 
a  nucleus  of  success  to  be  considered. 

It  is  also  necessary  to  take  into  consideration 
this  fact:  any  honest,  rational  person  is  com- 
petent to  testify  as  to  whether  he  feels  sick  or 
feels  well ;  he  may  not  be  competent  to  testify 
as  to  whether  he  was  at  a  certain  time  suffering 
from  Bright's  disease  or  cancer,  from  tubercu- 
losis of  the  lungs  or  the  necrosis  of  certain  joints. 
Here  the  question  is  one  of  diagnosis,  and  only 
those  who  have  been  trained  in  the  science  of 
diagnosis  are  competent  to  speak. 

And  the  patient  may  not  be  competent  to 
testify  that  he  has  been  cured  by  faith,  or  by 
Christian  Science,  or  by  medicine,  or  otherwise, 
[35] 


mt^  anti  J^ealtl^ 


from  such  diseases  —  that  also  is  a  question  of 
diagnosis.  A  wealthy  gentleman  in  the  East, 
himself  a  chronic  invalid,  undertook  several 
years  ago,  in  the  interests  of  suffering  human- 
ity, to  follow  up  one  hundred  of  these  cases 
where  it  was  claimed  that  serious  maladies 
had  been  cured  by  faith.  He  found  that  over 
two-thirds  of  the  patients  died  in  less  than  two 
years  from  the  very  diseases  which  physicians 
had  pronounced  incurable,  but  from  which 
they  professed  to  have  been  triumphantly  cured 
by  faith.  The  patients  were  honest,  no  doubt, 
but  they  were  not  competent  in  diagnosis. 
They  went  to  the  healers,  and  under  the  stim- 
ulus and  excitement  of  the  meetings,  under  the 
influence  of  the  anointing  and  the  earnest 
prayers,  they  felt  better.  Their  exaltation  of 
spirit  was  such  that  they  publicly  testified  to 
the  cures,  and  for  a  time  their  general  health 
seemed  to  be  improved.  And  then  in  less  than 
two  years,  more  than  two-thirds  of  them  were 
laid  away  in  death  as  a  result  of  those  very 
diseases  from  which  they  had  professedly  been 
cured. 

[36] 


jHoDern  fait})  €mt^ 

But  still,  admitting  the  great  preponderance 
of  failures  which  wait  upon  the  outskirts  of  this 
movement,  unwilling  to  speak  because  they 
believe  that  their  continued  suffering  is  an  indi- 
cation of  their  lack  of  faith,  and  admitting  also 
the  temporary  character  of  many  of  the  re- 
puted cures,  there  still  remains,  as  I  believe,  a 
nucleus  of  fact.  When  we  find  these  stories  of 
healing,  therefore,  in  the  Middle  Ages  or  in  our 
own  day,  we  do  not  accept  them  in  the  mass. 
We  do  not  reject  them  in  the  mass.  We  deal 
with  them  individually,  and  undertake,  as  far 
as  possible,  to  reach  the  solid  and  verifiable 
truth  in  any  given  case. 

Now  suppose  we  find,  as  we  shall,  certain 
people  cured,  actually  and  permanently  cured, 
through  their  faith  in  God.  Shall  we  say  that 
this  is  real  Christianity;  that  this  is  what 
Christ  meant  when  He  said,  "Greater  works 
than  these  shall  ye  do"?  Shall  we  conclude 
that  if  the  great  mass  of  modern  Christianity 
were  not  spurious  and  lacking  in  real  faith,  all 
the  suffering  people  might  be  healed  in  the 
same  way? 

[S7] 


ifatti^  and  l^ealti^ 


It  seems  to  me  that  this  also  would  be  an 
erroneous  view.  "Greater  works  than  these 
shall  ye  do";  the  words  were  addressed  to  the 
whole  Christian  movement,  to  the  entire  Chris- 
tian civilization  which  would  result  from  the 
influence  of  Jesus.  "Greater  works,"  not 
necessarily  in  the  sudden,  amazing  character 
of  the  results  wrought  by  men  who  believed 
in  Christ,  greater  rather  in  their  extent,  in 
their  regularity,  in  the  permanent  value  of  those 
moral  achievements  which  these  original  works 
foreshadowed  and  symbolized. 

It  was  here  that  the  men  Christ  trained  Him- 
self placed  the  weight  of  their  emphasis.  When 
He  sent  forth  the  twelve  apostles,  He  said  to 
them,  "Go  to  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of 
Israel,  and  as  you  go,  preach,  saying,  'The 
kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand.'  Heal  the  sick, 
cleanse  the  lepers,  cast  out  devils.  Freely  ye 
have  received,  freely  give."  And  when  they 
went  out,  we  find  them  giving,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  only  a  slight  and  subordinate  attention 
to  the  work  of  physical  recovery,  but  devoting 
their  main  strength  to  changing  the  minds,  the 
[38] 


hearts,  and  the  wills  of  men  in  the  interest  of 
new  character.  And  when  Jesus  sent  forth  the 
other  seventy,  He  said,  "Into  whatsoever  city 
or  village  ye  enter,  heal  the  sick  that  are  therein 
and  say,  'The  kingdom  of  God  is  come  nigh 
unto  you.'"  And  when  they  returned  they 
reported  that  the  devils  were  subject  to  them, 
that  those  mental  and  nervous  diseases  which 
were  discussed  in  the  last  chapter  had  been 
cured  by  them  in  many  instances.  And  Jesus 
said,  "I  saw  the  forces  of  evil  falling  before 
you  like  lightning,  but  in  this  rejoice  not! 
Rejoice  rather  because  your  names  are  written 
in  heaven";  rejoice  rather  in  the  enrollment 
of  new  types  of  character  in  yourselves  and  in 
those  to  whom  you  have  ministered. 

In  the  gradual  extension  of  Christian  influ- 
ence; in  the  permeation  of  our  literature  by 
Christian  truth;  in  the  leavening  of  our  civili- 
zation by  Christian  ideals  and  principles;  in 
the  establishment  to  the  ends  of  the  earth  of 
such  institutions  as  churches  and  schools, 
hospitals  and  homes,  in  the  name  of  Christ 
and  by  the  gifts  of  his  followers;  in  the  carry- 
[39] 


fatt]^  anD  l^ealti^ 


ing  of  a  certain  high  quality  of  life  by  Christian 
men  and  women  into  all  the  dark  places  of  the 
globe;  in  the  magnificent  results  achieved  by 
all  these,  —  we  are  to  see,  according  to  my  un- 
derstanding of  the  promise,  the  "  greater  works" 
predicted  by  Christ  for  those  who  should  be- 
lieve on  Him,  rather  than  in  some  local  wonder, 
which  to  some  minds  might  seem  for  an  hour  to 
outshine  all  these  mighty  works. 

Now  if  we  take  this  view  of  it,  then  what 
place  ought  the  claims  of  faith  cure  to  have  in 
the  ordinary  life  of  to-day?  In  the  first  place, 
the  volume  and  the  significance  of  it  will  vary 
according  to  the  intelligence  and  the  temper- 
ament of  the  patients,  and  according  to  the 
mood  of  the  people.  When  Charles  II  was 
King  of  England,  he  touched  one  hundred 
thousand  people  who  hoped  by  his  royal  touch 
to  be  cured  of  scrofula  or  "King's  evil,"  as  it 
was  called.  King  James  is  said  to  have  touched 
eight  hundred  people  in  one  day  in  Chester 
Cathedral  for  the  same  purpose.  Whenever 
the  sovereign  appeared  the  people  thronged 
him,  hoping  to  touch  his  foot  or  his  hand  as  he 
[40] 


rode  through  the  streets.  But  when  King 
Edward  appears  to-day  in  London,  riding 
through  the  streets,  a  better  king  in  abihty  and 
in  character  than  either  Charles  II  or  James, 
not  a  soul  in  the  vast  multitude  gathered  to  see 
him  thinks  for  a  moment  of  trying  to  touch  him 
to  be  healed  of  disease.  The  whole  mood  and 
expectation  of  the  English  people  in  that  par- 
ticular matter  has  changed. 

And  you  will  find  that  the  expectation  re- 
garding cures  by  faith  is  to-day  most  alive  out 
on  the  frontiers  of  discriminating  intelligence, 
in  the  foreign  missionary  work  among  people 
just  in  process  of  entering  upon  higher  modes 
of  thought,  and  among  the  less  fortunate 
people  in  the  cities  where  the  Salvation  Army 
oflBcers  and  the  rescue  missions  are  at  work. 
In  these  several  quarters  we  find  a  keener 
expectation  in  regard  to  faith  cure  than  we 
would  find  in  a  college  town  or  in  a  city  church 
made  up  from  those  who  had  received  more 
thorough  intellectual  training. 

There  are  various  degrees  in  faith.    There 

is  the  cautious  assent  of  that  mind  which  is 
[41] 


mt^  aiTD  i^ealtl^ 


accustomed  to  weigh,  to  discriminate  and  to 
accurately  measure  all  the  elements  which 
enter  into  any  situation.  This  is  the  most 
characteristic  form  of  faith  among  those  who 
have  been  carefully  trained  on  the  intellectual 
side.  It  is  a  form  of  faith  which  is  not  apt  to 
move  mountains  or  to  work  other  wonders. 
There  is  also  the  expectant  interest  in  a  cer- 
tain direction  coupled  with  a  quiet  and  some- 
what passive  confidence  and  hope.  There  is, 
in  the  third  place,  a  feeling  of  strong  reliance 
and  trust  which  constantly  bestows  new 
energy  upon  its  happy  possessor.  And  then 
there  is  that  eager  assurance  and  feeling  of 
certainty  which  leads  its  possessors  to  put  into 
the  effort  for  recovery  all  the  energies  of  mind, 
of  heart  and  of  will,  enabling  them  at  times  to 
apparently  clear  all  obstacles  at  a  bound  in  the 
attainment  of  their  desires.  The  utility  of  this 
principle  of  faith  healing  will  therefore  vary  ac- 
cording to  the  intelligence  and  the  temperament 
of  the  patient,  and  according  to  the  prevailing 
mood  of  the  people  by  whom  he  is  surrounded. 
In  the  second  place,  the  measure  of  atten- 
[4«] 


tion  which  may  profitably  be  given  to  faith 
as  a  therapeutic  agent  will  vary  according  to 
the  nature  of  the  disease.  Any  physician  will 
tell  you  that  there  are  subjective  mental  states 
which  do  produce  the  symptoms  of  disease 
or  of  cure.  And  when  there  is  concentrated 
attention,  where  there  is  strong  credulity 
touching  certain  unseen  remedial  agencies, 
and  where  there  is  a  joyous  expectation  spring- 
ing out  of  personal  confidence  in  the  divine 
power  believed  to  be  at  work  on  behalf  of  the 
sufferer,  then  the  chances  of  recovery  are 
greatly  increased,  and  the  process  of  recovery 
may  be  greatly  hastened.  In  diseases  of  ac- 
cumulation, like  dropsy,  or  tumors,  by  the 
quickened  action  of  those  functions  which 
eliminate,  morbid  growths  are  thus  some- 
times rapidly  removed.  In  functional  troubles, 
like  headache,  indigestion,  mental  and  ner- 
vous depression,  any  one  can  readily  see  how 
a  strong,  warm,  live  faith  in  God,  as  not  only 
competent  but  ready  to  forgive  all  our  ini- 
quities and  heal  all  our  diseases,  may  come  to 
have  great  value. 

[43] 


mt^  anD  l^ealt]^ 


But  some  earnest  nature  is  saying,  perhaps, 
"Why  limit  it  to  particular  forms  of  disease? 
Cannot  God  do  one  thing  as  well  as  another?" 
Undoubtedly,  but  it  is  not  so  much  a  question 
of  what  God  can  do  as  of  what  God  does  do, 
of  what  God  has  been  doing.  If  a  man  were 
lying  on  the  railroad  track,  and  his  head  had 
been  cut  off  by  a  passing  engine,  it  would  lie 
within  the  power  of  Omnipotence  to  put  the 
man's  head  back  on  his  body  and  send  him 
away  alive;  all  this  were  as  easy  for  Om- 
nipotence as  the  curing  of  a  headache.  But 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  does  Omnipotence  ever 
restore  men's  heads  when  once  they  have  been 
cut  off?  Did  Christ  or  the  twelve  apostles  or 
the  other  seventy  ever  attempt  to  work  such 
wonders?  Did  the  medieval  saints  who  are 
reported  to  have  wrought  cures,  or  CuUis,  or 
Simpson,  or  Dowie  ever  accomplish  such  re- 
sults? No  one  has  ever  heard  of  any  such 
case.  If  I  should  be  run  over  by  a  street  car 
and  have  my  leg  cut  off,  it  would  not  occur 
to  any  one  of  my  Christian  friends  to  pray 
that  a  new  leg  might  grow  in  its  place.  Medical 
[44] 


science  and  Christian  sympathy  alike  would 
center  their  interest  upon  the  saving  of  life, 
and  then  upon  providing  me  with  such  an 
artificial  leg  as  might  enable  me  to  still  possess 
some  measure  of  usefulness.  In  all  this  atti- 
tude we  indicate  that  we  do  know  something 
about  the  way  Omnipotence  works,  and  we 
vary  our  appeal  and  shape  our  expectations 
according  to  the  nature  of  the  trouble  we 
face. 

Some  of  our  ills  can  be  overcome  by  calling 
upon  the  latent  forces  of  the  body  to  act,  by 
a  new  exercise  of  the  will  under  the  stimulus 
of  religious  appeal,  by  the  sense  of  that  rein- 
forcement which  comes  from  a  feeling  of 
alliance  with  the  Unseen  and  the  Eternal 
through  faith.  And  some  other  ills,  as  we 
have  seen,  are  not  to  be  cured  in  that  way. 
When  Christ  himself  was  here.  His  mighty 
will.  His  intelligent  sympathy.  His  great  soul, 
His  expectant  faith  in  the  capacity  of  those  to 
whom  He  ministered,  wrought  wonders.  But 
He  by  no  means  healed  all  the  sickness  and 

disease  in  Palestine  nor  did  He  correct  all  the 
[45] 


fait]^  ann  i^ealti^ 


physical  deformity  brought  to  His  notice. 
And  in  certain  places  He  found  the  people  so 
caught  in  the  power  of  unbelief  that  He  was 
there  unable  to  do  any  mighty  work. 

In  the  third  place,  where  faith  has  healing 
value,  it  need  not  and  ought  not  to  displace, 
it  should  supplement,  those  other  agencies 
which  experience  indicates  as  having  value 
for  recovery.  "Shall  we  trust  our  camels  to 
Allah  to-night?"  his  servant  said  to  Mo- 
hammed, when  they  were  pitching  their  camp 
at  an  oasis  in  the  desert.  "Yes,"  replied  the 
prophet,  "  but  tie  them  first."  Do  all  that  com- 
mon sense  and  experience  would  suggest  in 
any  situation,  thus  adding  to  your  prayer  of 
faith  and  your  trust  in  a  mightier  power  the 
efforts  of  intelligence. 

"Back  of  the  loaf  is  the  snowy  flour. 
And  hack  of  the  flour  the  mill; 
And  back  of  the  mill,  the  wheat  and  the  shower. 
And  the  sun  and, the  Father's  will." 

It  is  all  there  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  people. 
But  the  shower  and  the  sun  and  the  Father's 
[46] 


will  would  never  have  brought  us  our  loaf  of 
bread  but  for  the  co-operation  of  that  human 
energy  which  sowed  the  wheat  and  reaped  it 
and  ground  it  in  the  mill  and  baked  it  into  a 
loaf.  In  like  manner,  back  of  all  those  meas- 
ures, sanitary,  surgical,  or  medical,  —  measures 
declared  by  experience  to  have  an  ascertained 
value,  —  lies  the  Father's  will.  There  is  a 
healing  impulse  toward  recovery  which  causes 
the  cut  finger  to  heal  and  the  broken  bone 
to  knit,  but  we  can  best  utilize  that  heal- 
ing impulse  when  we  do  not  neglect  those 
parts  of  the  process  which  lie  within  our  own 
power. 

When  we  arise  in  the  morning  we  pray  with 
one  accord,  "  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread." 
We  utter  those  words,  I  hope,  not  as  an  empty 
form,  but  in  the  spirit  of  a  sweet  and  confident 
trust.  But  having  uttered  them,  the  farmer 
goes  to  his  field,  and  the  merchant  to  his  store, 
and  the  mechanic  to  his  shop.  Each  man 
uses  the  means  which  experience  suggests  in 
the  gaining  of  his  daily  bread.  The  Om- 
nipotent One  could  drop  down  manna,  or  for 
[47] 


fatti^  and  J^ealti^ 


that  matter,  beefsteak  and  bread,  sufficient  for 
all  our  needs,  but  Omnipotence  works  out  its 
beneficent  purposes  as  men  intelligently,  faith- 
fully, and  trustfully  co-operate  with  it,  by 
using  those  means  which  are  placed  here 
within  our  power  to  be  used. 

I  should  be  almost  afraid  to  declare  in  this 
public  way  how  much  I  personally  believe  the 
Unseen  One  can  do  and  does  do  for  our  relief 
and  for  our  health  when  we  learn  to  go  to  Him 
aright.  I  should  be  almost  afraid  to  speak  it 
out  lest  I  should  be  regarded  as  fanatical. 
But  the  very  strength  of  that  faith  on  my  part 
inclines  me  to  also  reverently  and  gratefully 
utilize  the  best  aids  which  the  intelligence  of 
my  fellowmen,  working  each  one  along  the 
line  of  his  own  specialty,  as  I  am  working  at 
mine,  places  within  my  reach. 

Four  great  epoch-making  advances  have 
been  achieved  by  medical  science;  the  in- 
troduction of  anesthetics,  making  possible 
surgical  operations  which  were  formerly  out 
of  the  question;  the  better  means  of  control- 
ling epidemics  so  that  Europe  is  not  now  at 
[48] 


the  mercy  of  the  black  plague  or  cholera  or 
smallpox  as  formerly;  and  our  own  Gulf 
cities  are  not  scourged  annually  by  yellow 
fever;  the  adoption  of  antiseptic  methods  in 
surgery,  reducing  the  percentage  of  fatality 
in  a  way  that  brings  the  doxology  to  our  lips; 
and  the  use  of  scientific  methods  in  diagnosis 
by  the  employment  of  chemical  reactions,  the 
Roentgen  rays,  blood  analysis  and  all  the  rest. 
We  see  beyond  a  peradventure  that  the 
spirit  of  truth,  which  John  said  was  the  Holy 
Spirit,  has  been  here  leading  the  minds  of  men 
into  these  truths  vitally  important  for  human 
well-being.  We  thank  God  for  all  this,  and  we 
look  ahead  to  still  other  valued  discoveries  to 
be  made  by  those  men  who  are  choosing  that 
form  of  service.  And  thus  I  add  to  my  own 
strong  faith  in  those  unseen  aids  which  may 
be  utilized  in  times  of  physical  crisis,  my  con- 
fidence in  the  demonstrated  efficiency  of 
medical  science. 

In  the  fourth  place,  it  is  well  to  remember 
that  while  God   is  omnipotent  and  faith  can 

work  wonders,  physical  health  is  not  the  only 
[49] 


fait)^  auD  i^ealtl^ 


nor  the  supreme  good  to  be  sought.  There 
was  a  man  once  who  had  faith  in  God,  faith 
before  which  even  that  of  Dr.  CuUis  or  Dr. 
Simpson  or  Dr.  Dowie  would  pale.  He  suf- 
fered from  a  physical  malady  which  he  called 
his  "thorn  in  the  flesh."  He  besought  the 
Lord  for  its  removal,  steadily,  insistently  and 
devoutly,  but  it  was  not  removed.  And  by 
his  very  disappointment  he  learned  that  there 
are  forms  of  strength  which  are  "made  per- 
fect through  weakness."  Thus  he  learned  to 
bravely  and  patiently  bear  his  thorn  in  the 
flesh  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  he  bore  it  to  his 
grave.  His  name  was  Paul,  and  you  will  find 
his  name  written  in  the  annals  of  Christian 
history  above  every  name,  save  only  the  name 
of  the  One  whom  he  served. 

It  may  be  that  you  have  looked  in  tender- 
ness and  sympathy  upon  your  loved  ones 
when  they  were  ill.  You  were  doing  all  that 
faith  and  hope  and  love  could  suggest.  But 
your  loving  desire  for  them  finally  went  down 
in  apparent  defeat.  It  was  a  crushing  blow; 
you  wondered  at  first  if  the  failure  of  all  your 
[60] 


efforts  for  their  recovery  was  due  to  your  lack 
of  faith.  But  no,  you  found  your  comfort  in 
believing  that  another  wiser  and  vaster  pur- 
pose than  our  own  underlies,  overarches  and 
enfolds  all  these  precious  interests  of  our 
hearts.  Then  you  moved  up  from  one  form 
of  strength  to  another  and  a  finer  form  of 
strength. 

It  may  be  that  you  have  your  own  thorn  in 
the  flesh ;  you  have  besought  the  Lord  thrice, 
and  more  than  thrice,  to  have  it  removed  but 
it  still  remains.  It  may  be  that  there  are  un- 
used sources  of  help  which  would  bring  you 
victory.  But  even  if  you  should  fail,  know 
that  there  are  many  fine  forms  of  strength 
which  are  still  made  perfect  through  weakness. 
Make  up  your  mind  to  be  well,  if  it  is  a  possible 
thing !  Utilize,  every  day  in  the  year,  all  those 
physical,  mental  and  spiritual  forces  which 
intelligence  indicates  as  having  value !  Lay 
hold  upon  these  unseen  aids  which  are  like  the 
arm  of  the  Almighty,  and  employ  that  help 
steadily  for  the  same  high  end !    But  however 

it  may  all  come  out,  know  that  either  in  mag- 
[51] 


faitl^  anD  l$tam 


nificent  health  or  with  the  sense  of  failing 
physical  powers,  you  can  still  be  able  to  say, 
touching  those  more  valued  and  enduring  in- 
terests, "The  Lord  is  the  strength  of  my  life, 
of  whom  shall  I  be  afraid." 


[52] 


Cl^e  l^rois  anD  €om  of 
€^ti^tim  Science 


in 


Ci^e  ^xo^  anti  Conji  of 
Cl^rtjsttan  Science 


HE  great  apostle  was  a  man 
of  discrimination.  He  did 
not  believe  in  swallowing 
things  whole  merely  because 
they  tasted  good  on  the  out- 
side. He  always  analyzed  their  contents  first. 
He  did  not  lose  his  head  and  go  pellmell  into 
some  new  scheme  of  life  or  some  strange 
philosophy  merely  because  certain  good  points 
were  apparent  in  it.  He  carefully  sifted  it  out. 
He  weighed  its  component  parts,  estimated 
their  value,  studied  their  general  tendency 
and  direction.  Then  having  analyzed  them, 
tested  them,  tried  them  out,  he  retained  that 
which  was  good.  "Prove  all  things;  hold 
fast  that  which  is  good." 

I  believe  that  this  indicates  the  right  course 
in  regard  to  the  movement  known  as  Christian 
Science.    I  would  not  undertake  in  this  chapter 
[55] 


!ffafti^  anu  J^ealti^ 


to  condemn  it  in  the  mass ;  I  know  too  much 
about  it  for  that.  And  I  am  not  here  to  praise 
it  indiscriminately;  I  know  a  great  deal  too 
much  about  it  to  do  that.  I  wish  to  sift  out 
the  wheat  from  the  chaff  and"  indicate,  if  I 
may,  those  lines  of  thought  and  effort  whereby 
we  can  hold  fast  all  that  is  good  in  the  move- 
ment. And  I  believe  I  may  say  without  im- 
modesty that  I  have  earned  my  right  to  do 
this.  When  one  objects  to  some  of  the  claims 
of  Christian  Science  as  being  irrational  and 
absurd  the  common  reply  is,  "  Oh,  but  you  do 
not  understand.  It  seems  so  to  mortal  mind, 
but  when  you  have  studied  the  subject  and 
have  read  'Science  and  Health'  those  objec- 
tions will  disappear."  Now  I  have  studied 
the  subject.  I  did  not  get  up  my  knowledge 
of  Christian  Science  over  night  or  cram  up  on 
it  hastily  in  a  week  for  some  Sunday  evening 
sermon.  I  began  the  study  of  Christian 
Science  twenty-three  years  ago,  in  the  month 
of  February,  1887,  in  the  city  of  Boston.  I 
went  to  the  fountain  head  for  my  instruction. 
At  that  time  Mrs.  Eddy  herself  was  lecturing 
[56] 


Cl^rtjstian  ^ctence 


in  Boston  and  it  was  my  great  privilege  to 
attend  her  lectures.  In  addition  to  that  I  had 
as  my  personal  instructors  two  men  who  were 
officers  in  the  Mother  Church  at  Boston,  one 
of  them  the  strongest  and  the  clearest  expo- 
nent of  Christian  Science  I  have  ever  heard 
speak,  and  the  other  the  man  to  whom  Mrs. 
Eddy  intrusted  the  treatment  of  her  grand- 
child when  that  child  was  sick  unto  death. 
I  spent  something  over  three  hundred  dollars 
for  my  instruction,  for  however  strong  the 
faith  of  the  teacher  or  the  healer  in  this  strange 
cult  may  be  in  the  value  of  "absent  treat- 
ment," when  money  is  changing  hands  he  is 
always  present  in  person  attending  strictly  to 
business.  His  illusions  as  to  the  unreality  of 
things  in  general  do  not  extend  to  financial 
transactions;  there  his  mind  and  the  ordi- 
nary "mortal  mind"  operate  in  much  the 
same  way  in  that  he  insists  upon  the  coin  of 
the  realm  and,  quoting  the  words  of  the  founder 
herself,  "tuition  strictly  in  advance." 

I  have  in  my  home,  signed,  sealed  and  de- 
livered   by    a    regularly    chartered    school,    a 
[57] 


fatti^  anD  ^ealtl^ 


diploma,  certifying  that  I  have  completed  the 
prescribed  courses  of  study  and  am  entitled 
to  practice  as  a  Christian  Science  healer.  If 
I  chose  to  hang  out  my  sign  as  a  healer  at  my 
home  in  Oakland,  California,  to-morrow  morn- 
ing no  one  could  say  me  nay. 

In  addition  to  that  I  have  read  books  and 
pamphlets  on  this  subject  by  the  armful. 
I  have  had  my  own  copy  of  "Science  and 
Health"  for  these  twenty-three  years.  My 
personal  copy  is  one  of  the  early  ones  —  it 
is  a  third  edition,  while  the  book  has  now 
reached  something  over  two  hundred  and  fifty 
editions.  This  early  edition  has  become  so 
rare  that  copies  sell  now  at  a  premium.  It  is 
also  regarded  by  the  leaders  of  the  movement 
as  valuable  because  it  contains  certain  state- 
ments which  Mrs.  Eddy  would  be  glad  to  call 
in  and  cancel,  for  they  do  not  appear  in  the 
later  editions.  I  have  attended  Christian 
Science  meetings,  Sundays  and  week  nights, 
in  Oakland,  in  Boston,  in  London,  and  in  other 
places.  I  have  spent  hours  and  hours  listening 
to  the  instruction  and  the  testimonies  of  their 
[58] 


€l^ti^tian  Science 


teachers,  their  healers  and  their  believers.  I 
have  followed  up  carefully  many  of  their  so- 
called  cures.  I  do  not,  therefore,  base  what  I 
have  to  say  in  this  chapter  on  hearsay  or  on 
newspaper  report;  I  come  to  you  not  as  an 
outsider,  but  with  a  diploma  in  my  hand  cer- 
tifying that  I  have  been  instructed  in  the 
science  and  the  art  of  metaphysical  healing. 

I  wish  to  consider  both  the  pros  and  cons 
of  Christian  Science.  Let  us  see  first  what  can 
be  said  in  favor  of  the  movement.  It  has  un- 
doubtedly spoken  in  tones  of  authority  to  a 
large  number  of  nervous,  complaining,  self- 
pitying  people  who  never  had  anything  much 
the  matter  with  them,  and  has  stopped  their 
wail  by  putting  a  new  set  of  phrases  upon  their 
lips.  "Stop  talking  about  your  ills,"  it  said. 
"Stop  thinking  about  them;  stop  believing 
that  you  have  any  ills,  for  such  ills  as  yours 
are  all  due  to  a  morbid  state  of  mind.  Rise  up 
out  of  your  ailments  into  the  health  God  meant 
you  to  enjoy."  And  by  saying  this  with  those 
accents  of  infallible  authority  which  her  fol- 
lowers attribute  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  statements, 
[59] 


!f  atti^  auD  J^ealtl^ 


it  has  changed  the  mood,  the  spirit  and  the 
bodily  health  of  several  thousands  of  these 
self-pitying  people.  To-day  they  are  more 
happy,  hopeful,  and  acceptable  members  of 
society.  For  all  this  let  us  thank  God !  The 
physicians  tell  us  that  at  least  one-third  of  all 
the  ills  people  complain  about  are  imaginary 
ills,  and  Christian  Science  has  shown  itself 
powerful  in  putting  an  end  to  imaginary 
troubles. 

In  the  second  place  it  has  taken  a  limited 
number  of  people  who  were  actually  suffering 
from  certain  functional  diseases,  nervous  head- 
aches, indigestion,  hysteria,  tendencies  to  epi- 
lepsy perhaps,  and  has  cured  them.  Sift  the 
evidence  all  out  and  make  due  allowance  for 
the  long  list  of  failures,  there  still  remains  a 
certain  number  of  cures  standing  to  the  credit 
of  this  movement.  I  believe  Christian  Science 
has  cured  more  than  it  has  killed  —  I  think 
a  good  many  more.  This  is  not  so  much  to  its 
credit  as  might  at  first  appear  because  it  has 
not  had  the  chance  to  treat  a  great  many  peo- 
ple who  were  seriously  ill  from  organic  diseases. 
[60] 


Cl^rtjsttan  Science 


Their  own  common  sense,  and  that  of  their 
friends,  coupled  with  their  own  instinct  of 
self-preservation,  was  too  great  to  allow  them 
to  trust  themselves  to  such  a  leaky  boat  as 
Christian  Science.  But  in  dealing  with  cer- 
tain functional  troubles  we  find  that  veritable 
cures  have  been  wrought. 

In  the  third  place  it  has  given  a  number  of 
people  in  almost  every  community  something 
better  to  think  about.  It  has  awakened  in 
them  an  interest  in  religion  —  a  very  curious 
and  distorted  form  of  religion,  but  a  religion 
none  the  less.  It  has  set  them  to  reading  their 
Bibles,  to  thinking  and  talking  about  God,  to 
striving  to  bring  to  bear  upon  their  personal 
problems  the  unseen,  spiritual  forces.  It  has 
drawn  into  it  some  people  from  the  churches, 
but  they  were  not  as  a  rule  people  who  counted 
for  much  in  Christian  activity.  In  that  church 
of  which  I  am  pastor,  a  church  of  more  than 
seventeen  hundred  members,  we  have  in  the 
last  fourteen  years  lost  twenty-three  or  twenty- 
four  members  who  have  gone  over  to  Christian 

Science.     I  was  looking  over  the  list  recently 
[61] 


fait\)  and  J^ealtlft 


and  I  find  that  out  of  that  number  four  or  five 
would  have  been  called  active,  earnest  Chris- 
tians. The  others  were  nominal  members, 
listlessly  waiting  for  some  wind  of  chance  to 
blow  them  where  it  might.  And  into  many 
of  these  listless  minds  there  has  come  a  new 
interest  as  they  have  become  believers  in  the 
extraordinary  claims  of  Mrs.  Eddy. 

In  the  fourth  place  the  Christian  Science 
people  as  a  rule  are,  within  the  limits  of  their 
somewhat  narrow  scheme  of  life,  good  people. 
They  are  for  the  most  part  law-abiding,  up- 
right, friendly  and  peaceable.  In  their  insti- 
tutional life  they  are  not  generous  toward  the 
poor  for  they  believe  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
poverty,  although  individual  Christian  Scien- 
tists do  render  many  deeds  of  kindness.  They 
show  little  interest  in  civic  reforms  for  they 
believe  there  is  no  sin  or  crime  in  the  world  to 
be  reformed.  But  as  you  meet  them  in  the  nar- 
rower range  of  personal  morality  they  are  good 
people  and,  as  a  rule,  pleasant  people. 

Now  having  said  these  four  things  in  favor  of 
Christian  Science,  that  they  have  changed  the 
[62] 


Cl^rtjsttan  Science 


tone  of  life  for  many  self-pitying  people,  that 
they  have  cured  a  certain  number  of  functional 
disorders,  that  they  have  interested  some  people 
more  vitally  in  the  general  subject  of  religion, 
and  that  taking  them  as  a  class  they  are  people 
who  are  upright  and  clean,  what  more  can  be 
said  ?  All  this  can  be  said  heartily  in  recogni- 
tion of  certain  elements  of  good  in  their  system. 

But  in  fairness  what  must  be  said  on  the  other 
side?  Taken  as  a  system,  I  believe  Christian 
Science  to  be  a  colossal  humbug,  and  for  cer- 
tain reasons  which  I  shall  presently  indicate, 
in  many  instances,  a  cruel  and  a  wicked 
humbug. 

I.  It  is  a  humbug  in  that  it  claims  to*  be  the 
only  true  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  — "  Chris- 
tian Science  is  the  pure  evangelic  truth.  It 
accords  with  the  trend  and  tenor  of  Christ's 
teaching  and  example  while  it  demonstrates 
the  power  of  Christ  as  taught  in  the  four  gos- 
pels.    Outside  of  this  Science  all  is  unstable 


*  Mrs.  Eddy's  Retrospection  and  Introspection,  p.  80. 
Science  and  Health,  p.  202. 

[63] 


mt^  anu  l^ealt]^ 


it  was  discovered  and  announced  to  the  world 
by  a  flighty  and  conceited  woman  forty-three 
years  ago. 

II.  It  is  a  humbug  in  that  it  takes  the  name 
of  "Science"  and  then  deliberately  repudiates 
and  denies  the  fundamental  principles  of  all 
scientific  procedure.  "Treatises  on  anat- 
omy, physiology  and  health  sustained  by  what 
is  termed  material  law  are  the  promoters  of 
sickness  and  disease.  It  is  proverbial  that  as 
long  as  you  read  medical  works  you  will  be 
sick."  ^ 

III.  It  is  a  humbug  in  that  it  refuses  all 
competent  diagnosis  and  undertakes  to  deal 
with  all  kinds  of  disease  in  the  same  way, 
which  is  manifestly  absurd.  "Physicians  ex- 
amine the  pulse,  tongue,  lungs  to  discover  the 
condition  of  matter;  when  in  fact  all  is  mind 
and  the  body  is  the  substratum  of  mortal  mind 
to  whose  higher  mandate  it  must  respond."  ^ 

IV.  It  is  a  humbug  in  that  it  teaches  its 
people  to  give  no  attention  to  sanitary  or  hy- 


'  Science  and  Health,  p.  72. 

"  Science  and  Health,  p.  370. 

[64] 


Cl^rijsttan  Science 


gienic  measures,  denying  that  any  value  at- 
taches to  diet,  baths,  exercise,  fresh  air  or  any 
of  those  things  which  God  has  provided  for  our 
health.  "Bathing  and  rubbing  to  alter  the 
secretions  or  remove  unhealthy  exhalations 
from  the  cuticle  receives  a  useful  rebuke  from 
Christian  healing.  We  are  told  that  the  simple 
food  our  forefathers  ate  assisted  to  make  them 
healthy  but  that  is  a  mistake.  This  diet  would 
not  cure  dyspepsia  at  this  period.  With  rules 
of  health  in  the  head  and  the  most  diges- 
tible food  in  the  stomach,  there  would  still  be 
dyspeptics.  The  less  we  know  or  think  about 
hygiene  the  less  we  are  predisposed  to  sick- 
ness." ' 

V.  It  is  a  humbug  in  that  it  asserts  that  all 
disease  is  merely  an  illusion  of  mortal  mind 
and  has  no  basis  in  the  destruction  of  tissue  or 
in  other  organic  changes  which  are,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  susceptible  of  scientific  demonstration. 
"Man  is  never  sick,  for  mind  is  not  sick  and 
matter  cannot  be.  If  the  lungs  are  disappear- 
ing this  is  but  one  of  the  beliefs  of  mortal  mind. 

»  Science  and  Health,  pp.  93,  381,  388. 
[65] 


mtt^  and  l^ealti^ 


Mortal  man  will  be  less  mortal  when  he  learns 
that  lungs  never  sustained  existence.  Discard 
all  notions  about  lungs,  tubercles,  inherited 
consumption  or  disease  arising  from  any  cir- 
cumstance and  you  will  find  that  mortal  mind 
when  instructed  by  truth  yields  to  divine  power 
which  steers  the  body  into  health."  ^ 

I  have  no  harsh  or  unkind  words  for  the  hon- 
est, well-meaning  people  who  have  gone  into 
this  movement,  believing  that  they  might  re- 
ceive help;  some  of  them  have  received  help. 
I  believe  that  they  are  deceived  and  misled,  and 
that  the  ultimate  tendency  of  the  movement 
with  which  they  have  connected  themselves  is 
dangerous.  But  for  those  more  competent 
men  and  women  who  are  engineering  the 
movement  from  Boston,  with  a  great  outlay 
of  money  derived  from  the  sale  of  the  publica- 
tions and  from  the  contributions  of  the  faith- 
ful, with  thousands  of  paid  assistants  scattered 
over  the  country  and  with  a  supporting  loyalty 
from  the  rank  and  file  which  is  beautiful  and 
worthy  of  a  better  cause,  — for  those  men,  some 

*  Science  and  Health,  pp.  392,  428. 
[66] 


Ci^tfettan  defence 


of  whom  I  came  to  know  personally  when  I 
was  studying  the  subject,  I  have  not  so  much 
charity.  To  foist  upon  the  public  a  system 
which  tells  little  children  suffering  from  scarlet 
fever  or  malignant  diphtheria  that  there  is 
nothing  the  matter  with  them,  that  they  may  go 
out  and  play  with  the  other  children  or  go  to 
school,  is  a  cruel  humbug.  To  tell  men  and 
women  fighting  against  the  ravages  of  Bright's 
disease  or  cancer  or  tuberculosis  of  the  lungs 
that  their  sufferings  are  mere  illusions  of  the 
mind  and  that  there  is  nothing  the  matter 
with  them  except  belief,  becomes  an  unpardon- 
able insult.  To  stand  up  in  the  face  of  all  the 
pain  and  distress  of  the  world  and  with  a 
mixture  of  delirious  vigor  and  careless  brazen 
optimism  say,  "  All 's  well,  for  I  'm  well,"  is 
an  unpardonable  piece  of  effrontery. 

There  are  some  good  people  who  have 
had  a  feeling  that  many  of  the  criticisms  made 
upon  Christian  Science  have  been  more  severe 
than  the  case  warranted.  I  believe  this  feeling 
on  their  part  has  been  due  to  the  fact  that  they 
have  never  read  the  book,  "Science  and 
[67] 


mt^  anb  l^ealti^ 


Health,  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures,"  by  Mrs. 
Mary  Morse  Baker  Patterson  Glover  Eddy,  to 
give  the  book  and  the  lady  their  full  titles  as 
accumulated  by  her  many  marriages.  I  do  not 
blame  these  people  for  not  having  read  the  book. 
Among  all  the  queer,  incomprehensible,  tire- 
some, unrewarding  books  I  have  ever  read, 
this  one  stands  at  the  head  of  the  list.  Any 
man  in  his  right  mind  would  rather  saw  wood 
or  wash  the  automobile  than  read  "Science 
and  Health."  But  to  enable  each  one  to  judge 
for  himself  from  first-hand  evidence  as  to  the 
reasonableness  of  the  Christian  Scientist's 
contentions  let  me  quote  certain  passages  from 
the  book  itself.  I  will  invite  Mrs.  Eddy  her- 
self to  appear  in  this  chapter  and  to  speak  in 
the  language  of  her  own  book  as  to  the 
principles  of  her  system,  so  that  there  may 
not  be  any  suspicion  of  misrepresentation  or 
exaggeration. 

This  book  from  which  I  now  quote  is  a  copy 

of  "  Science  and  Health,"  the  two  hundred  and 

fifth  edition,  published  by  Joseph  Armstrong, 

Mrs.  Eddy's  own  publisher,  at  95  Falmouth 

[68] 


Cl^rtsttan  ^ctence 


Street,  Boston.  This  is  the  Christian  Science 
Bible.  It  is  read  in  every  Christian  Science 
service  Sunday  morning  and  Sunday  evening, 
and  aside  from  a  few  passages  of  scripture,  its 
utterances  are  the  only  utterances  heard  in  the 
service.  The  Pope  at  Rome  permits  my  good 
friend  and  neighbor  Father  McNally  at  St. 
Patrick's  Church  and  my  friend  Father  Mc- 
Sweeney  at  St.  Francis  de  Sales  to  speak  out 
of  their  own  hearts  messages  of  hope  and  help 
to  their  congregations  along  with  the  appointed 
service  of  the  Church.  But  Mrs.  Eddy,  by  an 
edict  issued  a  few  years  ago,  prohibited  all 
forms  of  public  address  or  sermon  or  remark 
in  the  services  of  her  churches;  she  abolished 
the  office  of  pastor,  stating  that  this  book 
henceforth  should  be  the  pastor  of  every  Chris- 
tian Science  congregation;  and  provided  that, 
aside  from  a  few  passages  of  scripture,  nothing 
should  be  said  or  read  in  a  Sunday  service  ex- 
cept selections  from  her  own  book,  chosen  by 
herself. 
What  a  piece  of  spiritual  arrogance  it  was! 

Imagine  Phillips  Brooks,  Bishop  of  Massachu- 
[69] 


f  aiti^  auD  l^ealti^ 


setts  though  he  was,  the  leading  man  in  the 
Episcopal  Church,  one  of  the  wisest,  most 
eloquent  and  most  godly  preachers  of  the 
Nineteenth  Century,  —  imagine  him  abolish- 
ing the  office  of  rector  in  the  Episcopal  Church 
and  insisting  that  nothing  should  be  said  or 
read  in  any  Episcopal  service  except  passages 
from  one  of  his  books !  Imagine  Henry  Ward 
Beecher,  the  greatest  Congregational  minister 
we  have  produced,  one  whose  interpretations 
of  the  deep  things  of  life  make  Mrs.  Eddy's 
utterances  seem  like  the  meanderings  of  some 
sentimental  schoolgirl  —  imagine  him  decree- 
ing, if  he  had  possessed  the  power,  that  noth- 
ing should  be  said  or  read  in  any  Congregational 
pulpit  except  selections  from  one  of  his  books ! 
And  imagine  any  congregation  of  American 
Episcopalians  or  Congregationalists  consenting 
to  be  browbeaten  in  that  way!  It  almost 
passes  belief,  but  when  you  enter  the  ranks 
of  those  who  set  out  by  asserting  that  "there 
is  no  such  thing  as  sin,  sickness,  disease  or 
death  in  the  world  "  you  may  be  prepared  to 
fall  in  with  many  queer  things. 
[70] 


Cl^ttjsttan  Science 


I  will  now  quote  to  you  from  "Science  and 
Health  "  certain  selections  which  will  indicate 
some  of  the  principles  which  underlie  this 
movement. 

Mrs.  Eddy  begins  by  scorning  the  use  of  all 
material  remedies,  insisting  that  drugs  have  no 
effect  aside  from  the  beliefs  of  mortal  mind  as  to 
their  potency,  and  that  but  for  these  opinions, 
erroneously  held,  one  drug  would  be  exactly 
like  another  in  its  effects. 

"If  a  dose  of  poison  is  swallowed  through 

mistake,   and   the  patient  dies,   even   though 

physician  and  patient  are  expecting  favorable 

results,  does  belief,  you  ask,  cause  this  death.? 

Even  so,  and  as  directly  as  if  the  poison  had 

been  intentionally  taken.    In  such  cases  a  few 

persons  believe  the  potion  swallowed  by  the 

patient  to  be  harmless;   but  the  vast  majority 

of  mankind,  though  they  know  nothing  of  this 

particular  case  and  this  special  person,  believe 

the  arsenic,  the  strychnine  or  whatever  the  drug 

used,  to  be  poisonous,  for  it  has  been  set  down 

as  a  poison  by  mortal  mind.    The  consequence 

is  that  the  result  is  controlled  by  the  majority 
[71] 


jfattl^  and  i^ealtl^ 


of  opinions  outside,  not  by  the  infinitesimal 
minority  of  opinions  in  the  sick  chamber."  ^ 

"  When  the  sick  recover  by  the  use  of  drugs,  it 
is  the  law  of  a  general  belief  culminating  in  indi- 
vidual faith  which  heals  and  according  to  this 
faith  will  the  effect  be.  Even  when  you  take 
away  the  individual  confidence  in  the  drug  you 
have  not  yet  divorced  it  from  the  general  faith. 
The  chemist,  the  botanist,  the  druggist,  the 
doctor  and  the  nurse  equip  the  medicine  with 
their  faith  and  the  majority  of  beliefs  rule. 
When  the  general  belief  endorses  the  inanimate 
drug  as  doing  this  or  that,  individual  dissent  or 
faith  unless  it  rests  on  Science  is  but  a  minority 
belief  governed  by  the  majority."  ^ 

You  see  that  in  her  judgment  the  physical 
effect  of  any  drug  rests  entirely  on  the  balance 
of  opinion,  and  if  we  could  only  secure  a  ma- 
jority vote  in  favor  of  arsenic,  strychnine  or 
corrosive  sublimate,  they  could  all  be  safely  put 
on  the  list  of  accepted  articles  of  diet  under  the 
Pure  Food  Law. 

She  proceeds  to  set  aside  all  attention  to  san- 

*  Science  and  Health,  p.  70.     '  Science  and  Health,  p.  48. 
[72] 


ClftrijSttan  Science 


itary  and  hygienic  measures  as  having  no  value, 
and  to  instruct  her  followers  to  give  no  heed  to 
the  laws  of  health. 

"The  so-called  laws  of  health  are  simply 
laws  of  mortal  belief.  The  premises  being 
erroneous,  the  conclusions  are  wrong.  Truth 
makes  no  laws  to  r^ulate  sickness,  sin  and 
death  for  these  are  unknown  to  Truth.  Obe- 
dience to  the  so-called  laws  of  health  has  not 
checked  disease."  "Is  civilization  only  a 
higher  form  of  idolatry  that  man  should  bow 
down  to  a  flesh  brush,  to  flannels,  to  baths,  diet, 
exercise  and  air  ?  "  ^ 

Let  the  children  eat  what  they  please  and  as 
much  of  it  as  they  want.  Let  them  drink 
stagnant  water  with  typhoid  germs  in  it  when 
they  are  away  in  summer.  Let  them  give  no 
heed  to  diet,  exercise,  fresh  air,  bathing  and 
other  good  things  which  God  has  provided  to 
minister  to  our  physical  efficiency  and  which 
experience  has  found  to  be  useful,  for  all  these 
notions  as  to  the  laws  of  health  are  the  errors 
of  "  mortal  belief." 

•  Science  and  Health,  pp.  66,  76. 
[73] 


jfattl^  ann  l^ealti^ 


Mrs.  Eddy  then  proceeds  to  say  that  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  disease  any  way:  "What 
is  termed  disease  does  not  exist.  It  is  not  mind 
nor  matter.  Tumors,  ulcers,  tubercles,  inflam- 
mation, pain,  deformed  spines  are  all  dream 
shadows,  dark  images  of  mortal  thought  which 
will  flee  before  the  light.  The  dream  of  disease 
is  like  the  dreams  we  have  in  sleep,  wherein 
every  one  recognizes  suflFering  to  be  wholly  in 
mortal  mind."  ^ 

All  these  diseases  from  which  the  poor 
patients  are  suffering  at  this  hour  are  like 
the  fanciful  visions  you  saw  in  your  dreams 
last  night,  mere  "dream  shadows"  which  we 
can  shoo  away  with  a  wave  of  the  hand  or  by 
some  intellectual  flourish,  as  we  would  so  many 
unreal  ghosts. 

Having  laid  down  these  fundamental  prin- 
ciples as  to  the  uselessness  of  material  remedies, 
the  folly  of  attention  to  the  laws  of  health  and 
the  unreality  of  all  disease,  she  proceeds  to 
cite  certain  cases  where  wonderful  cures  have 
been  wrought  in  demonstration  of  her  extraor- 

'  Science  and  Health,  pp.  81,  416. 
[74] 


Cl^rtjsttan  Science 


dinary  theories.  Here  is  one  of  the  most  in- 
teresting ;  it  purports  to  be  the  testimony 
of  a  mother  whose  child  had  been  healed : 

"My  little  son,  a  year  and  a  half  old,  had 
ulcerations  of  the  bowels  and  was  a  great  suf- 
ferer. He  was  reduced  almost  to  a  skeleton 
and  growing  worse  daily.  He  could  take  noth- 
ing but  gruel  or  some  very  simple  nourishment. 
At  that  time  the  physicians  had  given  him  up, 
saying  they  could  do  no  more  for  him,  and  he 
was  taking  laudanum.  Mrs.  Eddy  came  in, 
took  him  up  from  the  cradle,  held  him  a  few 
minutes,  kissed  him,  and  laid  him  down  again, 
and  went  out.  In  less  than  an  hour  he  was  taken 
up,  had  his  playthings,  and  was  well.  The  next 
day  after  she  saw  him  he  ate  all  he  wanted.  He 
even  ate  a  quantity  of  cabbage  just  before 
going  to  bed."  ^ 

Think  of  that  little  chap,  only  eighteen 
months  old,  suffering  yesterday  from  ulcera- 
tions of  the  bowels  to  such  a  degree  that  physi- 
cians had  given  him  up  and  were  giving  him 
laudanum  to  make  him  comfortable  until  the 


'  Science  and  Health,  p. 
[75] 


faitt^  and  J^ealtl^ 


end  should  come;  and  then  as  a  result  of  hav- 
ing Mrs.  Eddy  hold  him  in  her  arms  a  few 
minutes,  being  entirely  well  to-day  and  able 
to  eat  as  a  sort  of  nightcap,  "a  quantity  of 
cabbage  just  before  going  to  bed." 

In  health  as  well  as  in  disease  there  is,  ac- 
cording to  this  book,  "Science  and  Health," 
neither  law  nor  method,  neither  rhyme  nor 
reason.  "Because  the  muscles  of  the  black- 
smith's arm  are  strongly  developed,  it  does  not 
follow  that  exercise  has  produced  this  result 
or  that  a  less  used  arm  must  be  weak.  The 
trip  hammer  is  not  increased  in  size  by  exer- 
cise. Why  not,  since  muscles  are  as  material 
as  wood  and  iron  ?  Because  mortal  mind  is  not 
willing  that  result  on  the  hammer,"  ^ 

If  some  mortal  mind  should  take  it  into  its 
head  to  will  that  the  trip  hammer  should  in- 
crease in  size  by  being  used,  it  might  come  to 
weigh  as  much  as  a  planet  by  being  so  con- 
stantly exercised.  Teach  that  to  the  boys  and 
girls  who  are  deriving  great  benefit  from  such 
outdoor  games  as  baseball  and  tennis  and  the 


*  Science  and  Health,  p.  94. 
[76] 


Cl^rijittan  Science 


various  track  events  which  give  wholesome  ex- 
ercise to  their  developing  bodies.  Teach  that 
to  them  when  they  take  systematic  body- 
building work  in  the  high  school,  the  college 
and  other  gymnasiums  under  competent  di- 
rection, with  such  manifest  good  results. 

And  Mrs.  Eddy  sets  no  limits  either  by 
reason  of  the  age  or  condition  of  the  patient, 
or  because  of  the  nature  of  the  trouble.  "I 
have  seen  age  regain  two  of  the  elements  it  had 
lost,  sight  and  teeth.  A  lady  of  eighty-five 
whom  I  knew  had  a  return  of  sight.  Another 
lady  of  ninety  had  new  teeth,  incisors,  cuspids, 
bicuspids  and  one  molar."  ^ 

I  read  that  statement  in  "Science  and 
Health"  twenty-three  years  ago,  and  I  have 
been  wondering  ever  since  why  that  dear  old 
lady  of  ninety  in  putting  in  her  order  for  a  new 
set  of  teeth  to  be  grown  by  purely  mental 
methods  restricted  herself  in  specifying  only 
"one  molar." 

And  not  merely  in  things  human,  but  in  the 
world  at  large  there  is  nothing  but  the  vain  be- 

*  Science  and  Health,  p.  143. 
[77] 


mtl)  anD  1$tam 


liefs  of  mortal  mind.  "  Electricity  is  not  a  vital 
fluid  but  the  least  material  form  of  illusive  con- 
sciousness —  the  material  mindlessness  which 
forms  no  link  between  matter  and  mind,  and 
destroys  itself.  Electricity  is  some  of  the  non- 
sense of  error,  which  ever  counterfeits  the  true 
essence  of  eternal  truth,  —  the  great  difiFerence 
being  that  the  former  is  unreal  and  the  latter 
is  real."  ' 

Tell  that  to  the  professors  of  physics  at  the 
University !  Hand  that  choice  bit  of  wisdom 
to  the  electrical  engineers !  Tell  the  growing 
boys  and  girls  that  according  to  the  teachings 
of  the  Christian  Scientists  this  mysterious  force 
which  lights  your  church  and  theirs,  which  car- 
ries you  swiftly  through  the  streets  upon  the 
ears,  as  it  carries  them,  for  which  you  pay  at 
the  Central  Office  as  do  the  Christian  Scien- 
tists themselves  —  tell  them  that  this  mighty 
force  which  has  revolutionized  transportation 
and  communication  and  bids  fair  to  usher 
in  a  new  era  in  manufacture  as  a  form  of 
power,  is  after  all  only  a  form  of  "  illusive  con- 


Science  and  Health,  p.  189. 
[78] 


Cl^rtettan  Science 


sciousness"  and  another  bit  of  "the  nonsense 
of  error." 

The  various  objects  with  which  we  are  accus- 
tomed to  deal  having  no  reality,  we  can  of 
course  create  them  or  destroy  them  merely  by 
thinking  about  them  in  this  way  or  in  that ! 
So  Mrs.  Eddy  claims !  "  Close  your  eyes  and 
you  may  dream  that  you  see  a  flower  —  that 
you  touch  and  smell  it.  Thus  you  learn  that 
the  flower  is  a  product  of  mind,  a  formation 
of  thought  rather  than  of  matter.  Close  them 
again  and  you  may  see  landscapes,  men  and 
women.  Thus  you  learn  that  these  also  are 
images,  which  mortal  mind  holds  and  evolves, 
which  simulate  mind,  life  and  intelligence."  ^ 

But  Mrs.  Eddy  realized  perfectly  well  that 
people  would  not  accept  such  statements ;  they 
would  say,  "We  know  better.  We  have  the 
evidence  of  our  own  senses.  We  see  flowers 
growing  up  out  of  the  ground  and  we  know  that 
we  did  not  create  them  merely  by  thinking  about 
them.  We  go  far  away  in  the  mountains  and 
find  the  wild  flowers  growing  and  blossoming 


Science  and  Health,  p.  237. 
[79] 


fattl^  anD  l^ealtift 


in  their  gentle  beauty  where  no  human  eye  has 
rested  upon  them  and  no  human  thought  has 
had  aught  to  do  with  them  until  we  chanced  to 
discover  them." 

Her  answer  is  that  the  five  senses  are  not  to 
be  trusted  for  a  moment.  "Any  supposed  in- 
formation coming  from  the  body  or  from  inert 
matter  as  if  they  were  intelligent  is  an  illusion 
of  mortal  mind  —  one  of  its  dreams.  Realize 
that  the  evidence  of  the  senses  is  not  to  be  ac- 
cepted in  the  case  of  sickness  any  more  than  it 
is  in  the  case  of  sin."  ^ 

The  words  of  Borden  P.  Bowne,  professor 
of  philosophy  in  Boston  University,  would  be 
instructive  to  Mrs.  Eddy  on  this  point  and 
would  help  to  clear  up  her  mind  if  she  should 
read  them :  "  The  order  of  experience  is  some- 
thing which  we  cannot  produce  at  will  or 
dismiss  at  pleasure.  Whatever  our  meta- 
physics, it  is  practically  as  real  for  the  most 
determined  idealist  as  it  would  be  for  the  most 
besotted  realist.  If  any  one  is  in  doubt  on  this 
point  let  him  make  the  experiment.     Let  him 


'  Science  and  Health,  p.  384. 
[80] 


Ci^rtjsttan  Science 


consider  whether  he  could  stand  out  of  doors  in 
scanty  clothing  through  a  January  blizzard, 
whether  he  could  swallow  safely  strychnine  in 
large  doses,  handle  a  live  wire,  put  his  hand  in 
the  fire,  chop  off  his  fingers,  sit  comfortably 
on  a  cake  of  ice,  renounce  food,  and  so  forth. 
Here  is  a  large  field  for  experiment  for  any 
one  who  doubts  and  wishes  to  try  and  see. 
And  before  long  it  will  appear  that  there  is  an 
order  of  experience  which  for  all  practical 
purposes  is  real.  That  is,  we  do  not  produce  it 
and  we  cannot  escape  it.  We  have  to  adjust 
ourselves  to  it  whether  we  like  it  or  not,  if  we 
expect  to  live." 

"These  things  remain,  whatever  name  we 
give  them,  and  we  have  to  adjust  ourselves  to 
them,  whatever  our  metaphysics  may  be. 
Hunger  may  be  an  illusion,  but  the  only  known 
way  of  effectively  dealing  with  it  is  by  securing 
a  certain  other  kind  of  illusion,  known  as  food. 
So  with  cold  and  divers  other  unpleasant  facts, 
they  may  be  illusions  but  they  will  be  very 
grievous  illusions  unless  we  apply  other  illusions 
known  as  shelter,  clothing,  warmth  and  the 
[81] 


mt\^  anD  i^ealtl^ 


like.  Arsenic  may  be  an  illusion  or  non- 
existent, but  we  must  not  swallow  it,  neverthe- 
less. A  live  wire  may  be  an  illusion,  but  we 
must  not  take  hold  of  it.  Our  bodies  also  may 
be  illusions,  but  we  must  at  least  treat  them 
in  certain  ways,  otherwise  certain  other  un- 
pleasant illusions  will  be  sure  to  arise.  If 
they  were  absolutely  real  we  should  not  be 
more  bound  by  them  than  we  are." 

"A  Christian  Scientist  who  admits  this 
differs  practically  from  the  rest  of  us  in  noth- 
ing but  words.  His  theoretical  difference,  if 
there  be  any,  lies  in  the  field  of  metaphysics, 
and  that  is  purely  a  matter  of  speculation.  If 
he  insists  that  his  metaphysics  can  exorcise  a 
blizzard  or  quench  the  violence  of  fire  or  put 
to  flight  the  many  ills  that  flesh  is  heir  to,  or 
do  away  with  hunger  and  cold  and  pain,  then, 
as  just  suggested,  there  is  ample  room  for 
decisive  experiment." 

If  you  put  your  hand  on  a  hot  stove  or  on 

the    live    wire    "the    supposed    information" 

coming  from  that  part  of  your  body  known  as 

the  hand  and  from  the  inert  matter  in  the  hot 

[82] 


Cl^rfetian  Science 


stove  or  the  live  wire  suggesting  to  you  that  it 
hurts,  that  your  hand  is  in  a  place  of  peril  and 
that  you  had  better  remove  it  as  fast  as  you 
can,  "is  not  to  be  accepted,"  Mrs.  Eddy  says; 
all  this,  too,  is  "an  illusion  of  mortal  mind, 
—  one  of  its  dreams."  Neither  is  the  evidence 
of  the  senses  to  be  accepted  "in  the  case  of 
sin."  If  with  your  own  eyes  you  see  a  man 
committing  some  serious  wrong  against  the 
person  or  the  property  of  another  you  must 
know  that  this,  too,  is  "an  illusion  of  mortal 
mind  —  one  of  its  dreams."  It  is  a  nice  doc- 
trine this,  that  the  evidence  of  the  senses  is  not 
to  be  accepted  either  in  the  case  of  sickness  or 
of  sin;  you  can  see  at  once  to  what  results  it 
is  calculated  to  lead  in  the  minds  of  the  un- 
thinking ! 

In  fact,  that  evidence  of  the  senses  which  sug- 
gests to  most  of  us  the  desirability  of  a  bath 
now  and  then  is  equally  illusory.  "The  daily 
ablutions  of  an  infant  are  no  more  natural 
or  necessary  than  would  be  the  process  of 
taking  a  fish  out  of  water  every  day  and 
covering  it  with  dirt  in  order  to  make  it 
[83] 


mt^  anD  jpealt]^ 


thrive  more  vigorously  thereafter  in  its  native 
element."  ' 

This  would  be  bad  news  for  the  babies  who 
crow  with  delight  over  the  morning  bath  and  who 
by  that  bath  are  made  more  presentable  and  ac- 
ceptable members  of  society,  if  indeed  their 
Christian  Science  mothers  were  disposed  to  take 
Mrs.  Eddy  seriously  and  give  up  that  ancient  and 
useful  practice  of  washing  their  little  children. 

The  more  we  study  the  teachings  of  this  re- 
markable system  the  more  we  recognize  the  fact 
that  these  minds  of  ours  are  so  misleading  that 
we  would  really  be  better  ofiF  without  them. 
And  so  Mrs.  Eddy  thinks  and  says:  "The 
less  mind  there  is  manifested  in  matter  the 
better.  When  the  unthinking  lobster  loses  his 
claw  it  grows  again.  If  the  science  of  life  were 
understood  it  would  be  found  that  the  senses 
of  mind  are  never  lost  and  that  matter  has  no 
sensation.  Then  the  human  limb  would  be  re- 
placed as  readily  as  the  lobster's  claw — not  with 
an  artificial  limb,  but  with  the  genuine  one."  ' 


*  Science  and  Health,  p.  411. 

'  Science  and  Health,  p.  484. 

[84] 


€}^tWan  Science 


If  we  were  all  only  on  the  lobster  level  of  in- 
telligence we  should  therefore  be  much  better 
off;  when  we  chanced  to  lose  our  legs  or  our 
arms  by  accident  or  by  necessary  amputation, 
we  could  at  once  grow  them  again  and  the 
artificial  limb  business  would  vanish  like  "a 
dream  shadow." 

I  have  quoted  these  twelve  passages  from 
"Science  and  Health"  as  they  stand  printed 
there  on  the  pages  indicated  by  her  own  pub- 
lisher and  with  her  own  imprimatur.  And  this 
book  is  the  Christian  Science  Bible !  This 
is  the  book  which  is  read  in  all  the  Christian 
Science  services  of  the  land  every  Sunday  — 
the  only  thing  which  is  read  or  said  in  those 
services  aside  from  a  few  passages  of  scripture  ! 
This  is  the  book  in  which  the  little  children  who 
are  just  forming  their  notions  of  life  are  being 
drilled  !  And  because  of  the  stupidity,  the  irra- 
tionality, and  if  put  into  practice  in  everyday 
life,  the  dangerous  immorality  of  some  of  the 
principles  there  laid  down,  I  arraign  the  Chris- 
tian Science  system  as  a  piece  of  cruel  and 

wicked  humbug. 

[85] 


fatti^  anD  l^ealti^ 


You  may  have  laughed  when  you  read  some 
of  those  statements  —  why  did  you  laugh  ? 
That  book  is  read  in  every  Christian  Science 
congregation  every  Sunday,  and  the  people 
there  do  not  laugh.  I  have  heard  things  said 
and  read  in  their  meetings  funnier  by  far  than 
anything  I  have  quoted  here,  and  no  one 
laughed,  —  no  one  even  smiled.  I  did  not 
smile  myself,  for  when  I  am  present  at  any 
manner  of  religious  service  which  is  sacred  to 
others,  it  is  sacred  to  me  while  I  am  there. 
After  I  got  out  I  laughed  immoderately  for  an 
hour  to  catch  up.  The  people  in  the  Christian 
Science  meetings  do  not  laugh  because  in 
taking  leave  of  their  senses  as  Mrs.  Eddy  urges 
them  to  do  in  her  book  they  also  take  leave 
once  and  for  all  of  the  sense  of  humor.  Mrs. 
Eddy  herself  is  quite  devoid  of  the  sense  of 
humor,  as  I  discovered  when  I  attended  her 
lectures.  She  showed  this  when  she  came  to 
name  her  new  movement.  With  the  whole 
English  language  open  to  her  and  with  diction- 
aries lying  around  everywhere  as  is  common 
in  Boston,  she  could  think  of  nothing  else  to  call 
[86] 


Cl^rijSttan  Science 


it  but  "Christian  SCIENCE,"  when  as  a 
matter  of  fact  it  denies  and  defies  all  the  fun- 
damental principles  of  scientific  procedure  and 
is  the  last  thing  in  the  world  which  any  man  of 
science  would  name  as  having  any  standing 
whatever  in  the  domain  of  legitimate  science. 
The  naming  of  the  movement  was  one  of  the 
choicest  bits  of  humor  perpetrated  upon  us  in 
the  nineteenth  century,  but  it  has  never  occurred 
to  Mrs.  Eddy  or  to  any  of  her  devoted  follow- 
ers that  there  is  anything  funny  about  it. 

The  statements  of  her  book  are  funny,  but 
they  are  also  serious  and  dangerous.  If  put 
into  practice  some  of  them  imperil  the  health  of 
whole  communities.  On  page  sixty-nine  of 
"Science  and  Health"  Mrs.  Eddy  says,  "One 
disease  is  no  more  real  than  another.  All  dis- 
ease is  the  result  of  education  and  can  carry  its 
ill  effects  no  further  than  mortal  mind  maps 
out  the  way.  Christian  Science  heals  organic 
disease  as  well  as  functional.  It  handles  the 
most  malignant  contagion  with  perfect  as- 
surance." 

It  attempts  to  do  just  that,  and  therein  lies 
[87] 


jfatti^  and  l^ealtl^ 


the  peril  for  the  rest  of  us.  A  few  years  ago, 
here  in  Oakland,  California,  a  family  living 
next  door  to  one  of  the  families  in  my  own 
church  had  a  little  girl  who  contracted  diph- 
theria. Her  mother  was  a  Christian  Scientist, 
and  she  told  the  child  that  there  was  nothing 
the  matter  with  her,  that  it  was  only  a  belief  of 
mortal  mind,  and  sent  her  out  to  play  with 
the  other  children  of  the  neighborhood  and  to 
school  with  them.  The  little  girl  went  until  she 
could  go  no  longer  —  she  was  sick,  and  sick 
unto  death  as  the  event  proved.  The  physi- 
cian called  in  at  the  last  moment  when  it  was 
too  late  to  do  anything,  pronounced  the  disease 
"malignant  diphtheria"  — and  the  child  died. 
Two  of  the  children  in  the  family  next  door 
contracted  the  disease,  and  the  nurse  who 
attended  them  also  had  diphtheria.  Their 
lives  were  saved  by  the  prompt  use  of  anti-toxin 
and  other  scientific  remedies;  the  only  fatal 
case  in  the  neighborhood  was  the  one  treated 
by  Christian  Science.  But  the  expense  of  that 
illness  thrust  upon  those  innocent  people  by  the 

disregard  of  all  law  and  all  conunon  sense  on 
[88]. 


€t^vi^tian  ^ctence 


the  part  of  the  Christian  Science  healer  and 
the  Christian  Science  mother,  the  anxiety  of 
that  family  and  of  other  families  over  the  pos- 
sible fate  of  their  dear  ones,  and  the  whole 
burden  imposed  upon  that  neighborhood  by 
such  insane  and  criminal  carelessness  is  but 
a  single  instance  of  the  peril  involved  in  having 
the  teachings  of  this  system  carried  into  practice. 
Similar  occurrences  were  taking  place  in 
Chicago  and  in  New  York  and  in  Boston. 
There  was  such  an  outcry  on  the  part  of  the 
people  and  such  pressure  brought  to  bear  by 
the  authorities  that  Mrs.  Eddy  felt  compelled 
to  issue  this  edict:  "Mrs.  Eddy  advises  that 
Christian  Scientists  do  not  at  present  heal 
contagious  diseases,"  and  upon  another  occa- 
sion this  friendly  suggestion  was  made:  "For 
the  present  Christian  Science  healers  are 
counselled  to  obey  the  law  in  regard  to  conta- 
gious diseases."  For  the  present !  They  are 
looking  for  something  better  than  obeying  the 
law  by  and  by.  They  had  shown  themselves 
unwilling  to  report  cases  of  contagious  disease 
or  to  counsel  their  patients  to  observe  those 
[89] 


f  att]^  and  l^ealti^ 


regulations  which  are  a  part  of  the  Christian 
usage  of  all  civilized  countries  as  well  as  a  part 
of  the  law  of  the  land,  but  now  they  are  coun- 
selled to  obey  the  law  "for  the  present." 

This  edict  which  Mrs.  Eddy  reluctantly  is- 
sued of  course  gives  away  her  whole  case. 
If  as  she  states  in  her  book  "one  disease  is  no 
more  real  than  another,"  and  all  disease  is 
simply  "  an  illusion  of  mortal  mind,"  then  there 
are  no  contagious  diseases  where  her  healers 
need  to  obey  the  law.  She  gave  away  her 
whole  case  when  she  admitted  the  existence  of 
contagious  diseases  with  their  attendant  perils, 
and  issued  that  manifesto;  but  even  so,  the 
community  is  not  protected.  What  is  a  case 
of  contagious  disease?  Who  is  to  decide  that 
point?  I  am  as  intelligent,  perhaps,  as  the 
average  layman  in  medicine,  and  I  have 
probably  read  more  medical  books  than  has  the 
average  layman,  and  yet  I  am  frank  to  say  that 
I  am  not  competent  to  decide  in  the  earlier 
stagey  of  the  disease  whether  a  child  has  scarlet 
fever  or  only  chicken  pox  or  some  harmless 

rash.     I  am  not  competent  to  say  whether  the 
[90] 


Ci^rtjStian  Science 


child  has  malignant  diphtheria  or  only  a  bad 
case  of  sore  throat.  This  is  a  question  of  diag- 
nosis, and  although  I  have  a  diploma  as  stated, 
I  have  not  been  trained  in  the  science  of  diag- 
nosis any  more  than  has  the  Christian  Science 
healer !  And  because  the  healers  and  the 
Christian  Science  people  decline  in  most  cases 
until  it  is  too  late  to  call  in  any  one  trained 
in  diagnosis,  the  course  they  pursue  remains 
a  menace  to  the  health  of  the  community. 

But  there  is  another  more  serious  charge  to 
be  made  against  their  system  —  it  is  dangerous 
to  the  mental  life  of  the  whole  generation  of 
children  who  are  being  brought  up  under  its 
dwarfing  influence.  You  can  imagine  the 
effect  upon  the  unfolding  mental  life  of  the  chil- 
dren of  being  drilled  Sundays  and  week  days, 
at  the  places  of  worship  and  by  the  conversation 
of  their  homes,  in  such  statements  as  I  brought 
before  you.  You  can  picture  the  effect  of  hav- 
ing a  young  mind  soaked  in  such  irrational 
principles  as  lie  at  the  foundation  of  the  move- 
ment. The  children  are  put  out  of  line  with 
the  whole  intellectual  development  of  their 
[91] 


faiti^  anD  l^ealtl^ 


day ;  they  are  taught  to  array  themselves  against 
all  scientific  methods  of  thought  and  action; 
they  are  taught  to  regard  themselves  as  in 
open  antagonism  to  the  best  knowledge  of  their 
time  in  regard  to  great  sections  of  human  in- 
terest. In  what  a  false  and  hurtful  position  are 
the  children  of  that  movement  placed  ! 

This  is  the  reason  why  you  cannot  name  to 
me  a  single  professor  of  psychology,  philosophy, 
logic  or  ethics  in  any  reputable  college  or  uni- 
versity of  the  land  who  is  a  Christian  Scientist. 
You  cannot  name  a  single  professor  of  physics, 
chemistry,  botany,  biology,  geology  or  astron- 
omy who  is  a  Christian  Scientist.  You  can  find 
in  those  chairs  Catholics,  Protestants,  Jews, 
Presbyterians,  Unitarians,  agnostics,  what  not, 
but  never  a  Christian  Scientist.  The  intelligent 
professor  knows  that  the  teachings  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  book  are  in  open  opposition  to  the  very 
principles  upon  which  rests  the  science  he  is 
appointed  to  teach.  And  he  knows,  too,  the  aw- 
ful dwarfing  and  distorting  influence  which  that 
system  exerts  upon  the  minds  of  children  in  the 
formative  period. 

[92] 


€t)vWan  Science 


You  may  drug  the  brain  with  whiskey  or 
with  morphia,  and  the  immediate  effect  is  to 
make  the  man  feel  strong  or  feel  at  peace 
with  himself  and  with  the  world.  But  that 
persistent  drugging  of  the  brain,  causing  the 
man  to  feel  strong  or  happy  when  he  is  neither, 
works  out  as  we  know  frightful  aberrations  and 
abnormalities,  until  at  last  he  pays  the  full  pen- 
alty for  his  false  method.  You  may  also  drug 
the  mind  by  plying  it  with  false  statements  and 
the  stimulus  and  excitement  of  false  sugges- 
tions. You  can  make  the  person  feel  better 
for  an  hour,  for  a  week,  for  months  perhaps, 
if  you  keep  it  up.  But  here  also  the  drugging 
of  the  mind  into  a  false  sense  of  what  is  true, 
drugging  it  until  the  real  is  unreal  and  the 
unreal  is  real,  is  attended  with  direful  results. 
The  whole  false  method  of  the  system  is  espe- 
cially injurious  in  its  effect  upon  the  unfolding 
mental  life  of  the  children. 

But  how  do  you   account  for  the  cures? 

Some  of  them  I  do  not  need  to  account  for. 

I  was  called  in  a  little  later  to  conduct  funeral 

services.    A  lady  in  Oakland,  California,  whom 
[93] 


ifaiti^  ann  ^caiti^ 


I  knew  very  well  was  suffering  from  tubercu- 
losis of  the  lungs.  Her  devoted  husband  did 
everything  that  money  and  affection  could  do 
for  her  relief,  but  apparently  without  result. 
Finally  in  her  desperation  she  wanted  to  try 
Christian  Science,  and  although  he  personally 
had  no  faith  in  it,  he  at  once  arranged  for  her 
to  have  that  treatment.  She  felt  better  for  a 
time.  And  one  of  the  Christian  Scientists 
meeting  one  of  our  Church  Trustees  on  the 
car,  exclaimed,  "How  glorious  it  is  that  Mrs. 

[naming  the  lady]  is  entirely  well  again." 

"Is  she.'*"  he  asked  with  considerable  sur- 
prise, for  he  was  a  friend  of  the  family  and 
knew  the  gravity  of  her  condition.  "  Oh,  yes, 
she  has  been  entirely  healed  by  Christian  Sci- 
ence." And  that  cure  was  celebrated  with  fer- 
vent hallelujahs  in  the  Christian  Science  con- 
gregation !  But  a  few  months  later  the  husband 
sent  for  me  to  conduct  the  funeral  service  and  to 
speak  such  words  of  comfort  as  I  might  to  him 
and  to  the  motherless  children.  His  wife  had 
died  from  tuberculosis  of  the  lungs  as  the  physi- 
cians had  told  him  months  before  was  inevitable. 
[94] 


Ci^rtettan  Science 


The  celebrated  English  earl  who  wrote  the 
famous  article  in  the  Cosmopolitan  a  few  years 
ago  on  "  The  Truth  about  Christian  Science," 
relating  therein  how  he  had  been  entirely  cured 
of  "fatty  degeneration  of  the  heart,"  which 
eminent  London  surgeons  had  pronounced  in- 
curable, made  quite  a  sensation.  It  was  a 
beautiful  article,  and  the  magazine  had  a  big 
sale.  The  utterance  of  the  nobleman  was  re- 
ceived with  loud  acclaim  by  Christian  Scien- 
tists in  this  land  and  in  England.  The  only 
drawback  about  it  was  that  in  less  than  ninety 
days  after  the  article  appeared,  the  earl  sud- 
denly died  from  the  very  disease  which  the 
London  surgeons  had  pronounced  in  his  case 
incurable,  —  fatty  degeneration  of  the  heart. 

Mrs.  Eddy  professes  to  be  able  to  cure  can- 
cer and  to  have  cured  cancer  when,  according 
to  her  published  statements,  "  it  had  eaten  into 
the  neck  until  the  jugular  vein  was  all  exposed." 
Yet  she  allowed  Mrs.  Mary  A.  Baker,  the 
widow  of  her  own  brother,  a  woman  for  whom 
in  published  letters  she  had  professed  the  great- 
est affection,  to  die  a  lingering  and  painful 
[96] 


sfaiti^  ann  J^ealti^ 


death,  stretching  from  months  into  years,  from 
cancer  of  the  breast. 

The  challenge  has  been  made  east  and  west, 
north  and  south,  again  and  again,  for  them  to 
show  a  single  serious  case  of  organic  disease 
cured  by  their  methods  where  the  fact  of  the 
disease  was  established  by  competent  diag- 
nosis and  the  fact  of  cure  similarly  established, 
and  the  challenge  has  never  been  met.  This 
is  not  a  challenge  that  a  miracle  be  worked  to 
confound  the  unbelievers  —  that  would  be  man- 
ifestly unfair  —  it  is  only  calling  upon  them  to 
produce  the  evidence  upon  which  they  are  bas- 
ing these  extravagant  claims  which  are  mis- 
leading the  people. 

In  an  organic  disease  there  is  the  actual  de- 
struction of  tissue.  In  the  functional  disease 
there  is  the  irregularity  or  abnormality  of  ac- 
tion in  some  function,  due  perhaps  to  some 
nervous  disorder,  without  the  destruction  of 
tissue.  Or,  to  state  the  distinction  in  more 
technical  terms,  an  organic  disease  is  one  where 
there  is  structural  lesion;  a  functional  disease 

is  one  where  the  function  or  secretion  of  some 
[96] 


Cl^ri^tian  defence 


organ  has  been  vitiated,  but  where  its  struc- 
ture is  little  if  at  all  changed.  And  it  is  in 
this  realm  of  functional  troubles  by  the  use  of 
forces  which  are  much  better  understood  and 
much  more  successfully  used  by  other  schools 
of  healing,  to  be  discussed  later  in  these  chap- 
ters, that  Christian  Science  has  won  whatever 
success  may  be  honestly  placed  to  its  credit. 

The  limitations  attaching  to  the  healing  of 
disease  by  the  power  of  suggestion  are  recog- 
nized by  all  men  who  have  the  scientific  habit 
of  mind,  and  allowance  must  be  made  for  them. 
"The  way  of  Christian  Science  is  strewn  with 
broken  hearts  and  maimed  bodies,  ruined 
health  and  lives  sacrificed,  because  under  the 
hypnotic  spell  of  Mrs.  Eddy  her  subjects  have 
refused  except  under  compulsion  of  public  in- 
dignation or  of  the  law  to  make  such  allow- 
ance." ^ 

I  have  not  deemed  it  appropriate  to  enter 
here  into  any  discussion  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  per- 
sonal character.  The  claim  is  being  made 
everywhere  that  she  is  avaricious.     I  have  my 

•  Powell,  Christian  Science,  p.  200. 
[97] 


fatti^  and  l$mt\^ 


own  opinion  on  that  point,  and  if  you  will  look 
into  the  financial  methods  of  the  movement 
where  she  stands  supreme  you  will  have  yours. 
It  is  being  asserted  loudly  that  for  twenty 
years  she  has  been  in  an  abnormal  mental  con- 
dition, and  Boston  attorneys  are  saying  openly 
that  when  she  dies,  as  she  must  ere  long,  for 
she  was  eighty-eight  years  old  the  16th  day  of 
last  July,  there  will  be  one  of  the  greatest 
lawsuits  of  history  to  determine  by  the  testi- 
mony of  alienists  and  other  experts  the  ques- 
tion as  to  her  mental  adequacy  to  make  dispo- 
sition of  all  that  immense  property.  I  have 
not  entered  into  that.  I  have  not  seen  Mrs. 
Eddy  for  over  twenty  years  and  I  do  not  know. 
I  have  not  discussed  the  autocratic  character  of 
her  rule  over  her  followers,  which  goes  far  be- 
yond anything  the  Pope  at  Rome  attempts.  In 
the  printed  by-laws  you  will  find  that  she  arro- 
gates to  herself  the  right  to  remove  any  reader 
from  any  church  in  the  land  by  simply  sending 
him  or  her  a  letter  of  dismissal;  no  reason 
need  be  assigned.    And  in  her  absolute  control 

of  the  whole  movement  in  its  property,  meth- 
[98] 


Cl^rijsttan  Science 


ods  of  worship  and  instruction,  the  personnel 
of  its  officiary  and  all,  she  goes  far  beyond  any 
religious  leader  known  to  us. 

I  have  tried  rather  to  discuss  the  system  on 
its  merits,  as  indicated  by  the  claims  advanced 
in  the  statements  of  its  own  authoritative  book, 
quite  aside  from  the  personal  factor.  And  in 
view  of  the  perils  it  involves  to  the  health  of 
whole  communities,  in  view  of  the  dwarfing  ef- 
fect it  has  upon  the  minds  of  children,  in  view 
of  the  abnormal  state  of  mind  and  heart  induced 
in  its  adult  believers,  I  make  my  protest  against 
what  the  leaders  are  doing  in  trading  upon  the 
undiscriminating  credulity  of  thousands  of  hon- 
est people,  in  imposing  upon  them  a  gigantic 
system  of  pious  humbug  and  in  encouraging  in 
them  a  selfish  disregard  for  the  real  sufferings 
and  privations  of  their  fellows  in  a  way  that 
makes  against  the  development  of  wholesome 
moral  life. 

But  the  apostle  said,  "Prove  all  things;  hold 

fast  that  which  is  good."     In  the  effort  to 

bring  to  bear  upon  the  correction  of  certain 

physical  ills  those  mental  and  spiritual  forces 
[99] 


iJfatti^  ann  l^ealti^ 


which  have  value  for  these  particular  troubles, 
there  is  something  exceedingly  good.  The  va- 
rious mistaken  efforts  in  this  direction  at  this 
time  stand  as  a  protest  against  and  a  rebuke 
to  the  inattention  of  the  Christian  Church  to 
this  form  of  help.  It  is  for  the  church  to  sift 
out  the  wheat  from  the  chaff  in  the  present 
popular  interest  in  these  various  movements 
and  to  conserve  for  the  relief  of  its  suffering 
people  all  the  elements  of  good. 

I  personally  have  reason  to  be  profoundly 
grateful  for  the  help  which  lies  in  this  direc- 
tion. I  was  below  par  physically  during  most 
of  my  boyhood  and  early  youth.  But  some 
years  ago  I  learned  how  to  use  the  forces  seen 
and  unseen  in  a  more  effective  way ;  the  meth- 
od of  it  I  shall  have  occasion  to  discuss  more 
fully  in  some  of  the  chapters  which  are  to  fol- 
low. I  suffered  this  handicap  at  the  start,  but 
for  twenty-one  years  in  my  chosen  profession  I 
have  been  working  steadily  and  strenuously.  I 
have  not  been  healed  of  cancer  or  Bright's  dis- 
ease or  bubonic  plague  any  more  than  the 

Christian  Scientists  have,  but  during  all  that 
[100] 


€t)vi^tian  Science 


period  I  have  worked  hard  and  have  been  ready 
for  my  work  week  in  and  week  out.  In  all 
that  time  I  have  never  missed  any  kind  of  an 
appointment,  week  day  or  Sunday,  because  I 
was  sick.  Headaches,  colds,  indigestion,  sore 
throat,  or  more  serious  maladies  from  which 
men  and  women  sometimes  suffer,  —  for 
twenty-one  years  I  have  been  able  to  resist 
them  all  so  that  I  have  been  ready  for  duty 
without  interruption.  And  in  doing  this  I 
have  been  greatly  helped  by  those  methods  of 
which  Christian  Science  is  only  an  awkward 
and  confusing  caricature. 

I  will  only  add  this  further  word,  —  our  com- 
mon Christian  heritage  in  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ  for  any  one  who  will  study  that  message 
with  a  receptive  mind,  an  honest  heart  and  a 
resolute  will,  opens  the  way  into  all  the  unseen 
helps  available  for  increased  physical  effi- 
ciency. You  need  not  take  leave  of  your  senses. 
You  need  not  indulge  in  any  mental  hysterics 
or  intellectual  shuffling  about  the  unreality  of 
things  in  general.  You  need  not  stultify  your- 
self by  breaking  with  the  entire  intellectual 
[101] 


mtti  ann  i^ealti^ 


movement  of  your  own  day  in  order  to  follow 
this  autocratic  lady  from  Boston.  They  have 
no  resources  open  to  them  in  their  system 
which  are  not  open  to  us  right  here.  If  you 
will  only  seek  by  study,  by  prayer,  by  an  obe- 
dient and  aspiring  life,  to  enter  more  deeply 
and  vitally  into  the  meaning  of  the  message 
which  He  uttered  at  the  opening  of  His  min- 
istry, "The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me  be- 
cause He  hath  anointed  me  to  preach  good 
tidings  to  the  poor;  He  hath  sent  me  to  bind 
up  the  broken  hearted,  to  preach  deliverance 
to  the  captives  and  to  set  at  liberty  them  that 
are  bruised" — if  you  will  only  enter  more 
deeply  and  vitally  into  the  meaning  of  that 
message,  you  may  in  your  ovm  personal  expe- 
rience go  far  along  the  road  to  the  realization 
of  the  high  claim  that  He  can  forgive  all  our 
iniquities  and  heal  all  our  diseases. 


[102] 


Cl^e  l^ealt'ng  j^otoer  of 
^uggeistfon 


IV 


Cl^e  i^ealfng  ^^otoet:  of 


HERE  is  a  vast  amount  of 
sound  psychology  in  the  scrip- 
tures where  they  offer  us  in- 
struction along  moral  and 
spiritual  lines.  If  you  would 
form  the  right  sort  of  character  go  about  it  in 
a  rational  way,  the  Bible  says.  "Whatsoever 
things  are  just,  whatsoever  things  are  true, 
whatsoever  things  are  pure,  whatsoever  things 
are  honorable,  whatsoever  things  are  lovable, 
whatsoever  things  are  of  good  report,  think 
on  these  things."  Pasture  your  mind  and 
heart  on  them  just  as  you  send  your  Jersey 
cow  into  the  clover  when  you  want  her  to  give 
good  milk.  Let  these  modes  of  thought  fur- 
nish the  delicate  nutriment  which  is  taken 
up  into  the  very  structure  of  your  inner 
life.  "Be  ye  transformed  by  the  renewing  of 
your  mind,"  —  by  the  introduction  of  higher 
[105] 


faiti^  and  J^eaiti^ 


and  finer  forms  of  material  to  be  wrought  upon 
by  the  energies  of  your  soul.  "Let  the  words 
of  youi:  mouth  and  the  meditations  of  your 
heart  be  acceptable  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord,"  — 
let  your  speech  and  your  thought,  which  are 
both  under  your  control,  be  right  and  you  will 
be  made  right  throughout. 

It  is  in  this  same  vein  that  the  author  of  the 
now  familiar  proverb  offers  his  word  of  wis- 
dom. As  a  man  thinketh  in  his  heart  so  is  he ! 
The  writer  does  not  mean  that  a  single  thought 
will  transform  a  man  either  physically  or  mor- 
ally. He  means  that  states_of  mind,  prevailing 
habits  of  thought,  tend  constantly  to  register 
themselves  in  bodily  as  well  as  in  moral  condi- 
tions. Morbid  conditions  of  mind  mean  by  and 
by  morbid  conditions  of  body.  Weakness  of 
will  and  irresolution,  fear  and  worry,  prepare 
a  soil  favorable  for  the  seeds  of  disease  and  aid 
in  its  development.     Healthy  states  of  mind, 

fminds  free  from  all  grudge,  bitterness  and 
envy,  minds  free  from  anxiety,  fret  and  distrust, 
minds  filled  with  faith  and  hope  and  love, 

I  make  for  health  as    surely  as    do  sunshine, 
[106] 


I^ealtng  |^otx)er  of  ^uggeistton 

fresh  air  and  pure  water.  As  a  man  thinketh 
in  his  heart  steadily  and  insistently,  be  it  up 
,  or  down,  so  he  tends  to  become.  "  The  body 
isjthe.^eneral  es^iression  of  past  thinking,"  as 
that  thinking  has  wrought  itself  out  in  terms 
of  physical  life. 

Thoughts  then  are  things,  powerful  things ! 
If  any  one  should  tell  a  man  suddenly  that 
some  one  he  loves  dearly  had  met  with  a  fatal 
accident,  he  would  instantly  turn  pale,  the 
blood  leaves  his  face.  A  thought  does  that  — 
not  a  drug  nor  a  blow  nor  any  physical  agent 
whatsoever.  Tell  a  man  of  honor  that  he  is  a 
liar  and  his  face  is  aflame  with  indignation  as 
the  blood  flows  into  it.  It  is  a  thought  regis- 
tering itself  in  certain  physical  changes.  A 
thought  will  cause  the  blood  to  flow  this  way 
or  that  way;  a  thought  will  work  a  radical 
change  in  the  various  currents  of  life.  Now  if 
you  will  utilize  this  force,  which  we  all  know, 
by  intelligent,  persistent,  systematic  habits  of 
thinking,  you  can  see  at  once  how  powerful  it 
may  become  for  good. 

"A  great  deal  of  alleged  physical  suffering 
[107] 


faiti^  anD  l$taltl) 


is  primarily  mental.  A  great  many  people 
have  'fixed  ideas'  of  disease,  pain,  debility, 
fatigue,  dread,  ineflSciency  and  inexpressible 
woes.  Much  oftener  than  we  realize  these 
can  be  transplanted  without  surgery  or  medi- 
cation. I  do  not  mean  that  they  are  not  real 
suffering;  they  are  as  real  as  the  grave.  But 
they  are  not  grounded  in  physical  infirmities 
and  they  are  not  to  be  cured  by  physic.  The 
mind  becomes  possessed  of  a  conviction  that  a 
certain  part  of  the  body  is  infirm  and  imputes 
pain  to  that  part  in  spite  of  all  the  medicine  in 
the  world.  Hundreds  of  people  refuse  to  get 
well  after  the  physician  has  cured  them.  It  is 
not  his  fault  and  it  is  not  their  fault;  they 
have  simply  had  disease  suggested  to  them 
until  they  cannot  think  at  all  except  upon  that 
assumption.  And  for  such  conditions  the  stim- 
ulus of  new  faith  and  the  re-education  of  the 
whole  mental  outlook  are  needed."  * 

Suggestion,  then,  as  I  use  the  term  in  this 
chapter,  means  the  influence  exercised  upon 
the  body  by  the  subtle  power  of  ideas.     The 
*  Max  Eastman,  Atlantic  Monthly,  May,  1900. 
[108] 


l^ealing  J^otoer  of  ^uggejJtton 

value  of  it  in  dealing  with  certain  functional 
troubles,  especially  those  of  a  nervous  or  men- 
tal origin,  is  coming  to  be  recognized  by  all 
intelligent  physicians  and  by  people  generally. 
You  can  see  the  philosophy  of  it.  The  most 
vital  functions  we  know,  digestion,  assimila- 
tion, circulation,  elimination,  are  all  of  them 
constantly  and  profoundly  influenced  by  the 
state  of  mind.  "A  merry  heart  doeth  good 
like  medicine,"  the  Bible  says ;  a  cheerful  dis- 
position affects  all  these  vital  processes.  The 
old  proverb,  "  Laugh  and  grow  fat,"  has  physi- 
ology on  its  side,  for  the  food  we  take  when 
we  are  cheerful  and  happy  does  us  ten  times 
more  good  than  the  food  eaten  when  we  are 
angry  or  worried  or  depressed.  The  processes 
which  have  to  do  with  the  elimination  of 
waste,  of  fatigue  and  other  poisons  from  the 
system,  are  constantly  affected  by  the  state  of 
mind. 

"Mind  cure  is  simply  the  acquiring  of  con- 
trol over  impulses,  emotions  and  the  habits 
that  demoralize.     It  substitutes  other  habits 
if  necessary.     The  person  gains  mental  poise 
[109] 


faiti^  anu  J^ealti^ 


and  leans  toward  optimism.  The  mind  liber- 
ates the  nervous  mechanism  and  the  vital  fluids 
of  the  body,  so  that  all  the  functions,  both 
physical  and  mental,  are  performed  normally." 
Professor  Anderson  of  Yale  University  un- 
dertook a  few  years  ago  to  demonstrate  the 
power  of  thought  in  a  most  scientific  way.  He 
had  a  young  man  suspended  in  his  laboratory 
on  a  perfectly  balanced  disk.  He  told  the 
man,  who  was  a  mathematician,  to  think  of 
some  difficult  problem  in  mathematics  and  to 
try  to  solve  it  mentally.  As  the  man  began  to 
think  hard  the  nicely  balanced  disk  tipped  on 
the  side  where  the  man's  head  was,  the  blood 
flowed  to  the  brain  in  increased  amount  and 
that  tipped  the  scale.  He  told  the  man  to  think 
of  running,  for  the  young  fellow  had  been  a 
football  player  and  interested  in  track  events. 
And  as  the  man  began  to  think  of  making  a 
hundred-yard  dash  or  of  running  down  the 
field  with  the  pigskin  under  his  arm,  the  disk 
tipped  to  the  side  where  his  feet  and  legs  were. 
The  blood  was  now  flowing  more  freely  into 

these  organs.     By  asking  the  man  to  repeat 
[110] 


l^ealfng  po^x)tx  of  ^ugge^tion 

the  multiplication  table  of  nines  the  displace- 
ment was  greater  than  when  he  was  repeating 
the  table  of  fives,  which  is  an  easier  table. 
The  professor  found  that  the  center  of  gravity 
in  the  man's  body  was  shifted  as  much  as  four 
inches  by  merely  changing  his  thought,  with- 
out the  moving  of  a  muscle.  Thoughts  are 
things,  and  their  power  for  good  or  ill  can  be 
accurately  weighed  and  measured. 

Here  then  is  a  force  to  be  used !  If  the 
blood  can  be  made  to  flow  more  freely  here  or 
there  by  a  change  of  thought,  if  all  the  pro- 
cesses of  digestion,  assimilation,  circulation  and 
elimination  can  be  influenced  for  good  or  ill 
by  mental  conditions,  if  all  those  functions 
which  are  in  constant  communication  with  the 
nervous  system  can  be  aided  or  can  be  hin- 
dered in  their  operation  by  the  thoughts  we 
think,  then  you  can  see  how  much  is  suggested 
in  those  words,  As  a  man  thinketh  in  his 
heart  so  he  becomes ! 

You  will  find  this  agency  discussed  under 
the  somewhat  elaborate  title  of  "The  Thera- 
peutic Value  of  Suggestion,"  by  such  scien- 
[111] 


mti)  ann  J^ealti^ 


tific  men  as  Bernheim  and  Moll,  Tuke  and 
Liebeault,  Schofield  and  Dubois.  You  will 
find  it  taken  up  by  psychologists  and  by  edu- 
cators. We  deal  with  children  almost  entirely 
by  suggestion.  The  child  about  to  cry  over 
some  trifle  has  his  attention  directed  to  some- 
thing else  by  a  new  suggestion  and  the  occa- 
sion for  his  wail  is  thus  forgotten.  The  child 
who  has  had  a  tumble  is  told  that  he  is  n't 
hurt  much;  "Mamma  will  kiss  it  and  that 
will  make  it  well !  Now  it  is  all  well " ;  the 
suggestion  is  accepted  and  becomes  effective. 
\  Suggestion  may  be  utilized  in  curing  bad  habits 
and  in  changing  unpleasant  dispositions  in 
children. 

We  may  carry  the  same  principle  on  up  to 
the  years  of  maturity  and  utilize  it  in  dealing 
with  more  serious  matters.  We  may  educate 
the  mind  by  suggestion  to  move  in  better 
channels  and  teach  the  heart  to  cherish  more 
wholesome  states  of  feeling,  and  in  that  way 
accomplish  splendid  results  in  securing  health 
and  in  developing  character. 

It  is  needless  to  say  to  any  intelligent  reader 
[112] 


l^ealing  potuer  of  ^uggeistfon 

that  the  power  of  mind  over  matter,  the 
power  of  suggestion  over  bodily  conditions,  has 
its  limits.  All  power  has  its  limits  unless  it 
be  the  omnipotent  power  of  Almighty  God, 
and  even  He  declares  Himself  conditioned  in 
the  accomplishment  of  His  purposes  by  the 
giving  or  the  withholding  of  our  obedient  co- 
operation. All  power  has  its  limits;  I  could 
pick  up  the  pulpit  in  my  church  and  carry  it 
across  the  street,  but  I  could  not  pick  up  the 
church  and  carry  it  away.  Yet  the  fact  that 
my  muscular  power  has  its  limits  does  not 
indicate  that  it  is  of  little  worth.  I  can  by 
right  thinking,  right  feeling  and  right  resolving 
affect  profoundly  certain  physical  conditions, 
but  I  cannot  entirely  change  the  structure  of 
the  body  in  cases  of  serious  organic  disease 
by  merely  thinking  pleasant  thoughts.  The 
power  of  suggestion  does  not  accomplish  every- 
thing; no  more  does  surgery  or  medicine  or 
any  other  agent  you  can  name.  Suggestion  is 
merely  one  of  the  therapeutic  agencies  which 
may  be  employed  in  the  interests  of  health. 

Let  me  put  it  more  concretely.     Here  is  a 
[113] 


faitl^  anD  i^ealtl^ 


woman  who  is  suffering  from  nervous  dys- 
pepsia. Her  food  does  not  agree  with  her; 
she  is  losing  flesh  and  losing  strength;  she  is 
afraid  of  a  total  collapse.  It  may  be  that  there 
is  no  organic  disease  present;  this  question 
should  be  determined  by  some  one  trained  in 
diagnosis.  If  there  is  no  organic  disease,  then 
what  she  needs  is  not  Hood's  Sarsaparilla  or 
some  long  prescription  written  out  in  ponder- 
ous Latin,  so  much  as  a  new  state  of  mind. 
She  talks  too  loud  and  too  much.  When  she 
talks  to  any  one  over  the  telephone  in  that 
nervous,  fretting  way  it  almost  seems  as  if  she 
would  break  the  instrument.  The  other  people 
in  the  room  where  her  message  is  being  re- 
ceived can  hear  the  squeaking,  rasping  noise 
which  is  made  when  the  person  at  the  other 
end  of  the  line  is  talking  unnecessarily  loud. 
It  is  simply  a  nervous  habit  which  some  people 
thoughtlessly  acquire. 

This  woman  who  suffers  from  nervous  dys- 
pepsia is  intense,  jerky,  fidgety  in  all  her  life. 
Her  two  patron  saints  are  St.  Martha,  troubled 

and  fretted  about  many  things,  and  St.  Vitus, 
[114] 


!^ealtng  po'wzv  of  ^uggejstton 

moving  with  jerks  and  twitches  rather  than  in 
serene  strength.  She  cannot  sit  down  without 
drumming  on  the  table  or  fussing  with  some 
ornament  on  her  dress.  She  will  sit  in  the 
rocking  chair,  nervously  rocking  to  and  fro. 
You  know  the  Europeans,  who  are  not  addicted 
to  rockers,  say  that  the  Americans  are  so  rest- 
less that  even  when  they  sit  down  they  cannot 
be  still,  they  must  rock  to  and  fro  as  if  they 
were  going  somewhere.  This  woman  eats  in 
feverish  haste  or  with  such  depression  of  mind 
that  her  food  is  robbed  of  its  value.  She  sleeps 
uncertainly  and  fitfully,  and  she  is  losing  power 
every  day  in  the  week. 

Here  is  a  case  where  suggestion  is  "indi- 
cated," as  the  physicians  say.  If  there  is  no 
organic  disease,  suggestion  will  do  her  ten 
times  more  good  than  drugs.  K  she  will  only 
say  to  herself  slowly,  thoughtfully,  expectantly, 
every  night  after  she  gets  into  bed  and  every 
morning  before  she  gets  up,  three  times  a  day 
before  meals  and  three  times  a  day  after  meals, 
and  at  intervals  of  an  hour  or  two  during  the 
day,  —  if  she  will  only  say  to  herself  these  eight 
[115] 


mt^  anD  i^ealtl^ 


words  which  so  many  people  have  found  use- 
ful, it  will  do  her  a  world  of  good.  The  re- 
sults may  not  appear  in  ten  minutes  or  in  a  day, 
but  in  a  surprisingly  short  time  they  will  work 
a  beneficent  change  in  her  whole  nervous  sys- 
tem. Here  are  the  eight  words :  "  Quietly, 
Easily,  Restfully,  Trustfully,  Patiently,  < 
Serenely,  Peacefully,  Joyously." 

This  would  be  good  for  her;  it  would  be 
good  for  any  one  who  has  the  least  suspicion 
that  he  is  headed  in  that  direction.  If  you 
find  yourself  talking  too  loud,  moving  with 
jerks,  losing  your  self-control,  liable  to  petu- 
lant speech,  breaking  out  in  spurts  of  anger; 
or  if  you  find  yourself  constantly  out  of  breath, 
all  unstrung,  feeling  as  if  you  might  fly  to 
pieces,  stop  right  there !  Sit  down  and  do 
your  exercises !  Say  to  yourself,  either  audibly 
or  mentally,  "Quietly,  easily,  restfully,  trust- 
fully, patiently,  serenely,  peacefully,  joyously." 

You    can    thus    control    your    own    mental 

states  if  you  set  about  it  in  the  right  way.    We 

are  not  responsible  for  the  random  thoughts 

which  come  and  go;  we  are  responsible  for 

[116] 


I^ealmg  ^aotwer  of  ^ugge^tton 

those  which  come  and  settle  down  to  summer 
and  winter  with  us.  As  the  old  proverb  had  it, 
^You  cannot  keep  the  birds  from  flying  over 
your  head,  but  you  can  keep  them  from  build- 
ing their  nests  in  your  hair."  You  are  respon- 
sible for  those  states  of  mind  which  you 
retain  and  cherish.  And  where  you  are  / 
/  convinced  that  in  your  own  case  there  is  a  ( 
)  tendency  to  be  morbid  and  unwholesome  you 

I  can,  by  systematic  and  persistent  suggestion, 
change  all  that  and  make  it  right. 

When  once  you  get  the  process  started, 
then  by  giving  it  a  little  attention  from  time 
to  time  it  seems  to  almost  take  care  of  itself. 
This  is  accomplished  through  what  Professor 
James  of  Harvard  and  many  other  psycholo- 
gists call  "the  sub-conscious  mind."  These 
men  believe  that  the  sub-conscious  mind  is 
especially  susceptible  to  suggestion,  and  that 
suggestions  once  lodged  there  may  continue 
to  accomplish  great  good  when  the  conscious 
attention  has  been  directed  to  other  matters. 
I  am  aware  that  some  psychologists  scout  the 
idea  of  a  "sub-conscious  mind,"  but  we  need 
[117] 


jfatt]^  and  l^ealti^ 


not  quarrel  about  terms.  There  is  surely 
something  in  each  one  of  us  which  is  indi- 
cated by  that  phrase. 

When  you  are  walking  down  street,  every 
time  you  lift  your  foot  and  put  it  down,  every 
time  you  turn  aside  to  avoid  running  into  some 
one  going  in  the  opposite  direction,  it  involves 
an  act  of  perception  and  of  will,  but  you  are 
scarcely  conscious  of  it ;  you  may  be  thinking 
of  something  else  or  talking  steadily  to  some 
friend  who  walks  with  you.  The  sub-con- 
scious mind  attends  to  the  minor  details  of 
your  walk  and  to  many  of  the  details  in  every- 
day life.  The  skilled  performer  on  a  pipe 
organ  learns  to  do  many  things,  as  we  say, 
automatically.  His  mind  is  intent  upon  the 
sheet  of  music  before  him  while  his  fingers  and 
his  feet  are  unconsciously  placing  themselves 
aright  upon  the  keys.  He  opens  and  closes 
stops,  manipulating  the  various  appliances  of 
the  organ  to  secure  the  desired  result,  scarcely 
conscious  of  the  details,  for  his  entire  conscious 
attention  is  given  to  the  general  effect  of  his 
playing. 

[118] 


i^ealtng  po\x)n  of  ^uggejstton 

I  learned  something  about  this  sub-con- 
scious mind  in  my  own  case  in  this  way:  I 
am  a  stenographer;  I  earned  my  way  through 
Theological  Seminary  with  my  shorthand.  I 
was  a  court  reporter  for  a  time,  and  I  also 
worked  a  year  and  a  half  in  the  home  office  of 
a  large  fire  insurance  company.  I  took  dicta- 
tion from  the  secretary  of  the  company  and 
I  became  very  familiar  with  all  the  insurance 
lingo  and  with  his  own  phrases  and  methods 
of  correspondence.  I  reached  the  point  where 
I  could  take  his  dictation  with  perfect  accu- 
racy without  thinking  about  it,  without  even 
hearing  consciously  what  he  was  saying.  I 
was  thinking  about  the  play  I  had  seen  the 
night  before  at  the  theater  or  the  book  I  had 
been  reading  or  the  young  lady  I  was  going 
to  call  on  that  evening.  The  sub-conscious 
mind  was  meanwhile  attending  to  its  duties  as 
the  secretary  dictated  his  letters. 

I  discovered  this  in  a  peculiar  way.    He  was 

a  great  joker  and  used  to  joke  with  his  agents 

—  "  jollying  them  up,"  as  he  called  it  —  in  his 

business  letters.     I  would  take  his  dictation, 

[119] 


mtt)  mh  i$talt\) 


recording  the  jokes,  —  some  of  them  very 
good  ones,  for  he  was  an  exceedingly  bright 
man,  —  without  ever  hearing  them.  Then 
when  I  came  to  write  out  my  shorthand  notes 
on  the  typewriter  I  would  come  to  the  jokes 
and  they  would  be  entirely  new  to  me  and  I 
would  laugh  over  them  for  the  first  time. 
Whatever  name  we  may  apply  to  it,  I  am  con- 
fident that  there  is  a  mental  realm  which  lies 
below  the  level  of  ordinary  consciousness,  and  in 
that  realm  the  power  of  suggestion  may  be  made 
to  work  mightily  in  the  interests  of  health. 

You  will  find  all  this  worked  out  in  elabo- 
rate fashion  by  many  writers.  Henry  Wood, 
in  his  "Ideal  Suggestion  through  Mental 
Photography,"  has  prepared  a  series  of  mental 
pictures  which  he  undertakes  to  photograph 
upon  the  mind  by  having  each  one  printed  in 
large  capitals  on  a  single  page.  This  is  to  be 
held  before  the  eyes  until  it  registers  itself 
indelibly  upon  the  mind.  He  believes  it  will 
produce  deep  down  that  state  of  feeling  and  of 
expectation  which  will  persist  after  the  con- 
scious attention  has  been  turned  of  necessity 
[  120  ] 


I^ealtng  l^otoer  of  ^uggejstton 

to  something  else.  His  suggestions  are  all 
wholesome  and  his  little  book  has  been  useful 
to  many  nervous  and  troubled  people. 

I  have  a  system  which  I  arranged  myself 
and  which  I  have  used  for  my  own  health  and 
have  given  to  many  other  people,  with  excel- 
lent results.  It  is  made  up  entirely  of  phrases 
from  the  scriptures.  It  is  as  harmless  as  pure 
water  or  fresh  air.  If  it  does  not  help  you,  it 
cannot  hurt  you.  It  is  unlike  the  intellectual 
shuflfling  and  the  fierce  denials  of  reality  with 
which  certain  Christian  Science  healers  often 
ply  their  patients  —  as  different  as  is  spring 
water  from  brandy. 

Let  me  give  you  an  illustration  of  this 
method,  if  you  wish  to  be  treated  by  sugges- 
tion or  if  you  wish  to  learn  how  to  treat  your- 
self or  to  treat  others  for  those  ills  which  can 
be  relieved  in  this  way.  Make  yourself  as  easy 
and  as  comfortable  as  you  can.  Let  your  hands 
lie  easily  in  your  lap  or  at  your  side.  You  are 
not  using  them  now  —  you  are  only  using  your 
eyes,  your  ears  and  your  mind;  let  your 
hands  rest.  Let  your  lower  limbs  relax  —  you 
[121] 


iffatti^  auD  i^ealtlft 


are  not  using  them  either ;  you  are  not  walking 
and  that  easy  chair  will  hold  you  up  without 
any  effort  of  your  own.  Now  in  that  relaxed 
state  of  restfulness  follow  me  through  these 
suggestions.  There  are  eight  sets  of  them, 
one  for  each  day  in  the  week  and  two  for  Sun- 
day if  you  choose  to  use  them  as  a  daily  ex- 
ercise in  right  thinking.  They  are  arranged  in 
two  series  of  four  each,  one  of  the  series  cul- 
minating in  healing  and  the  other  culminating 
in  sleep.  While  you  are  at  your  ease,  repeat  to 
yourself  these: 

Aids  to  Suggestion 

I.    To  banish  fear 

Fear  not  —  only  believe. 

Fear  not  —  it  is  your  Father's  good  pleasure 

to  give  you  the  mastery. 
Perfect  love  casteth  out  fear. 
I  will  fear  no  evil,  for  Thou  art  with  me. 

77.    To  bestow  confidence 

In  quietness  and  confidence  shall  be  my 

strength. 

[  122  ] 


l^ealtng  po'cott  of  ^uggejstton 

Be  still  and  know  that  He  is  God.  The 
Lord  of  Hosts  is  with  me.  The  God  of 
Jacob  is  my  refuge. 

Be  strong  and  of  a  good  courage.  The 
Lord  my  God  He  it  is  that  goeth  with  me. 
He  will  not  fail  me  nor  forsake  me. 

I  know  whom  I  have  believed  and  I  am 
persuaded  that  He  is  able  to  keep  that 
which  I  have  committed  unto  Him. 

III.    To  increase  faith 

Have  faith  in  God. 

All  things  are  possible  to  him  that  believeth. 

Great  is  thy  faith  —  be  it  unto  thee  even  as 

thou  wilt. 
Thy  faith  has  made  thee  whole. 

/       IV.    To  promote  healing 

The  leaves  of  the  tree  are  for  the  healing  of 
the  nations. 

The  Sun  of  Righteousness  is  risen  with  heal- 
ing in  His  wings. 

The  prayer  of  faith  shall  heal  the  sick. 
[123] 


fatt]^  and  l^ealti^ 


He  forgiveth  all  my  iniquities.  He  healetb 
all  my  diseases. 

V.    To  gain  peace 

Great  peace  have  they  who  love  Thy  law  and 
nothing  shall  offend  them. 

Thou  wilt  keep  him  in  perfect  peace  whose 
mind  is  stayed  on  Thee. 

Peace  I  leave  with  you;  My  peace  I  give 
unto  you.  Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled ; 
neither  let  it  be  afraid. 

The  peace  of  God  which  passeth  all  under- 
standing shall  keep  your  hearts  and  minds 
through  Jesus  Christ. 

VI.    To  develop  strength 

Tbey  that  wait  upon  the  Lord  shall  renew 

their  strength. 
The  Lord  shall  give  strength  to  his  people  — 

they  shall  go  from  strength  to  strength. 
The  Lord  is  the  strength  of   my  life,   of 

whom  shall  I  be  afraid. 
I  can  do  all    things  through    Christ  who 

strengtheneth  me. 

[124] 


l^ealtng  ^oioDtt  of  ^uggejstton 

VII.  To  secure  hapjnness 

A  merry  heart  doeth  good  like  medicine. 
If  ye  know  these  things  happy  are  ye  if  ye 

do  them. 
Happy  is  he  that  hath  the  God  of  Jacob  for 

his  help. 
These  things  have  I  spoken  unto  you  that 

My  joy  might  remain  in  you  and  that  your 

joy  might  be  full. 

VIII.   To  induce  sleep 
Come  unto  Me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are 

heavy  laden  and  I  will  give  you  rest. 
There  remaineth   therefore  a  rest  for  the 

people  of  God. 
I  will  lay  me  down  in  peace  and  sleep,  for 

Thou  makest  me  to  dwell  in  safety. 
He  giveth  His  loved  ones  sleep. 

Fix  your  mind  upon  each  one  in  turn !    Give 

yourself  to  it  until  it  fills  and  possesses  your 

entire  consciousness.     Seek  to   absorb  its   full 

significance  as  you  dwell  upon  the  bearing  it 

[125] 


fatt]^  anb  i^ealti^ 


has  upon  your  inner  life.  Fear  not,  only  be- 
lieve, for  faith  conquers  all  dread.  "  God  hath 
not  given  us  a  spirit  of  fear  but  of  power  and 
of  love  and  of  a  sound  mind."  Fear  not,  it 
is  your  Father's  good  pleasure  to  give  you 
the  mastery  —  the  entire  control  of  your 
moods,  your  habits  of  thought,  and  the  func- 
tions that  have  to  do  with  sound  health.  Per- 
feet  love  casteth  out  fear,  —  the  heart  possessed 
by  love  for  God  and  love  for  its  fellows  has 
nothing  to  fear  for  it  cannot  suffer  permanent 
harm.  I  will  fear  no  evil  for  Thou  art  with 
me  —  in  the  presence  of  the  Great  Companion 
the  heart  is  freed  from  its  anxiety. 

Your  thoughts  sent  out  into  every  part  of 
your  body  with  a  holy  and  helpful  purpose 
will  not  return  unto  you  void  —  they  will  go 
far  toward  the  accomplishment  of  that  whereto 
they  are  sent.  In  quietness  and  confidence 
shall  be  your  strength.  Be  still  and  know  that 
He  is  God  —  some  forms  of  knowledge  come 
by  the  active  use  of  the  intellectual  faculties 
and   other  forms  come  by  quiet  communion. 

Be  still  and  know !    The  Lord  of  Hosts  is  with 
[126] 


J^ealtng  po^x^n  of  ^ugge^tion 

you;  the  God  of  Jacob  is  your  refuge.  Be 
strong  and  of  a  good  courage  —  the  Lord  thy 
God  He  it  is  that  goeth  with  you,  He  will  not 
fail  you  nor  forsake  you.  Know  whom  you 
have  believed,  even  though  you  remain  uncer- 
tain as  to  what  you  may  believe  at  every  point 
in  the  creed  —  to  know  whom  one  has  believed 
is  a  long  step  toward  vital  faith ;  and  know  too 
that  He  is  able  to  keep  that  which  you  have 
committed  unto  Him. 

Have  faith  in  God !  All  things  are  possible 
to  him  that  believeth  —  faith  opens  a  wide  door 
into  a  large  field  of  possibilities.  "  Great  is  thy 
faith,"  the  Master  said  to  the  woman  whose 
affectionate  and  believing  entreaty  on  behalf 
of  her  child  seemed  to  overleap  all  obstacles, 
"be  it  unto  thee  even  as  thou  wilt."  And  to 
one  who  seemed  to  lack  so  much.  His  word 
was,  "Thy  faith  hath  made  thee  whole." 

The  leaves  of  the  tree  —  not  the  fruit  but  the 
incidental  by-products  of  the  wide-branched, 
far-reaching  system  of  divine  helpfulness  —  are 
for  the  healing  of  the  nations.  The  Sun  of 
Righteousness  is  risen,  filling  the  whole  world 
[127] 


iffaiti^  anti  J^ealtl^ 


of  human  need  with  Hfe-giving  rays,  even  as 
the  ordinary  sun  fills  the  earth  with  light  and 
warmth,  quickening  every  living  thing  —  the 
Sun  of  Righteousness  is  risen  with  healing  in 
His  wings.  The  prayer  of  faith  shall  heal  the 
sick  —  it  takes  its  place  among  the  other  thera- 
peutic agencies  upon  which  wise  and  devout 
men  rely.  And  in  this  whole  attitude  we 
are  dealing  with  Him  who  is  able  to  for- 
give all  our  iniquities  and  to  heal  all  our 
diseases. 

Great  peace  have  they  which  love  Thy  law  — 
the  divine  law,  the  divine  way,  the  divine 
method  —  and  nothing  shall  cause  them  to 
stumble.  Thou  wilt  keep  him  in  perfect  peace 
whose  mind  is  stayed  on  Thee  —  though  storm 
and  tempest,  struggle  and  temptation,  rage 
without,  there  is,  deep  within  the  soul,  a  place 
untroubled,  unshaken,  untouched  in  its  abid- 
ing peace.  Peace  I  leave  with  you ;  My  peace 
I  give  unto  you  —  and  it  was  a  transcendent 
peace  which  the  Master  possessed.  Let  not 
your  heart  be  troubled,  neither  let  it  be  afraid. 

And  the  peace  of  God  which  passeth  all  under- 
[128] 


i^ealtng  po'wn  of  ^uggejJtton 

standing,  which  goes  deeper  than  the  ordinary 
reach  of  our  intellectual  perceptions,  shall 
keep  —  the  word  used  was  a  military  term  and 
it  meant  "garrison"  as  if  deep  within  the  life 
there  was  an  impregnable  citadel  made  strong 
beyond  the  power  of  any  assault  —  the  peace 
of  God  shall  garrison  your  heart  and  mind 
through  Jesus  Christ. 

The  searching  inward  reconstruction  which 
will  gradually  take  place  under  the  power  of 
intelligent  suggestion  and  religious  faith  will 
work  marvelous  changes  in  the  general  health 
—  "  They  that  wait  upon  the  Lord  shall  renew 
their  strength,"  through  the  reinforcement  of 
His  imparted  grace.  "The  Lord  shall  give 
strength  to  His  people  —  they  shall  go  from 
strength  to  strength,"  from  one  form  of  strength 
to  another  and  a  higher  form,  from  one  meas- 
ure of  strength  to  another  and  a  fuller  measure. 
The  Lord  is  the  strength  of  my  life,  of  whom, 
or  of  what,  shall  I  be  afraid !  "  I  can  do 
all  things" — this  sounds  like  boasting  — 
"through  Christ"  (but  here  is  modesty  and 
humility,  for  the  strength  is  His  and  it  becomes 
[129] 


fatti^  anu  l^ealti^ 


ours  by  the  personal  appropriation  of  faith) 
"who  strengtheneth  me." 

And  all  this  must  issue  in  increased  happi- 
ness, which  in  turn  will  react  upon  health,  for 
a  merry  heart  doeth  good  like  medicine.  If  ye 
know  these  things,  do  them,  translate  the 
vision  into  deed,  the  insight  into  practice,  the 
promise  made  to  your  higher,  finer  self  into  a 
performance,  and  happy  you  will  be.  Happy 
is  he  that  hath  the  God  of  Jacob  for  his  help  — 
his  personal  relation  to  the  Eternal  becomes 
in  him  a  deep  well  of  happiness  springing  up 
with  everlasting  life.  These  things  have  I 
spoken  unto  you  —  it  was  almost  the  last 
word  uttered  on  earth  by  Him  whom  God 
anointed  with  the  oil  of  gladness  above  his 
fellows,  making  His  joy  a  transcendent  and  a 
surpassing  joy  —  these  things  have  I  spoken 
unto  you  that  My  joy  might  remain  in  you 
and  that  your  joy  might  be  filled  full. 

And  then  to  crown  and  close  the  day  of 

deep,  rich  experience,  seek  the  rest  and  quiet 

of  profound  sleep.     "Come  unto  Me  all  ye 

that   labor   and    are   heavy   laden "  —  all   ye 

[130] 


l^ealtng  po'cott  of  ^uggejstion 

weary,  burdened  and  depleted  lives  —  "  and  I 
will  give  you  rest."  "There  remaineth  there- 
fore"—  not  away  in  some  remote  hereafter 
beyond  the  clouds,  but  here  and  now  in  the 
midst  of  these  exacting  duties  —  "a  rest  for 
the  people  of  God";  it  is  a  rest  which  comes 
not  by  unloading  ohe's  obligations  or  by  flee- 
ing from  one's  duties,  but  by  that  re-enforce- 
ment of  strength  which  finds  ease  and  joy  in 
the  performance  of  duty.  "  I  will  lay  me  down 
in  peace  and  sleep"  — and  to  any  life  which 
loses  all  care  in  the  sweet  forgetfulness  and 
the  precious  renewal  of  sleep  there  is  given 
an  innocent,  rewarding  and  ever  recurring 
source  of  profound  comfort  — "  for  Thou 
makest  me  to  dwell  in  safety."  He  giveth 
His  loved  ones  sleep ! 

If  you  are  suffering  from  nervous  headaches 
or  nervous  indigestion  as  a  result  of  living 
under  too  great  a  strain;  if  you  have  a  ten- 
dency to  hysteria,  of  which  there  is  a  great 
deal  more  than  many  people  suppose;  if  cer- 
tain functions  are  not  performing  their  duties 
as  they  ought,  I  know  by  experience,  my  own 
[131] 


mtti  ant)  i$tait\i 


and  that  of  others,  that  if  you  will  take  these 
suggestions  and  use  them  quietly,  trustfully, 
persistently,  you  can  bring  about  a  change  in 
your  whole  interior  life  which  will  register  its 
good  results  all  through  your  body.  Send  your 
thoughts  aloft  into  this  upper,  purer  air  when- 
ever they  are  freed  for  a  few  moments  from 
the  ordinary  concerns  which  occupy  them,  and 
they  will  not  return  unto  you  void. 

If  you  are  troubled  with  insomnia,  as  so 
many  burdened  men  and  women  are  in  these 
days,  when  we  are  living  at  too  sharp  a  pace, 
you  can  find  help  here.  I  have  great  sympa- 
thy for  those  who  find  it  difficult  to  sleep; 
several  years  ago  I  knew  what  it  meant  to  lie 
awake  the  long  night  through,  hearing  the 
clock  strike  the  hours  and  the  half  hours,  long- 
ing for  sleep  and  longing  in  vain.  But  it  is 
possible  for  us  to  teach  ourselves  better  habits 
of  sleep.  I  have  learned  how,  at  the  close  of 
some  long,  hard,  exacting  day,  to  so  use  these 
scriptural  formulas  that  oftentimes  in  less  than 
five  minutes  after  my  head  touches  the  pillow 
I  am  sound  asleep,  awaking  next  morning  re- 
[132] 


I^ealtng  |^oi»er  of  ^uggejcjti'on 

freshed  and  ready  for  another  busy  day.  It 
is  unspeakably  good  to  be  able  to  lay  oneself 
down  in  peace  and  sleep,  resting  upon  the 
infinite  arm  of  Him  who  maketh  us  dwell  in 
safety. 

You  will  understand  that  I  do  not  offer  these 
suggestions  to  you  as  a  panacea  for  Bright's 
disease  or  cancer  or  bubonic  plague;  in  the 
presence  of  such  diseases  the  power  of  sug- 
gestion is  as  helpless  as  is  Mrs.  Eddy  herself. 
The  Christian  Scientists  are  simply  plungers 
and  speculators  in  this  market  where  whole- 
some suggestion  has  value  and  is  quoted  regu- 
larly in  all  the  reliable  medical  journals.  The 
men  who  are  using  it  intelligently  as  one  of 
the  many  therapeutic  agents  are,  on  the  other 
hand,  trying  in  sober,  sensible  fashion  to  ascer- 
tain its  exact  value  and  to  employ  it  where  ex- 
perience has  "indicated"  it  as  being  useful. 
And  it  is  true  beyond  a  peradventure  that  in 
many  nervous,  mental  and  functional  disor- 
ders you  can  thus  invest  thought  and  desire 
in  the  confident  assurance  of  receiving  good 
dividends. 

[133] 


{fattl^  ann  l$taW^ 


And  indeed  in  cases  of  organic  disease  and 
in  warding  off  the  attack  of  germ  diseases  you 
will  find  it  of  great  value  to  cultivate  that  state 
of  mind  and  heart  which  is  favorable  to  health. 
We  know  that  pneumonia  is  developed  from 
a  microbe  and  that  there  is  a  bacillus  of  tuber- 
culosis and  a  bacillus  of  diphtheria  and  that 
there  are  other  enemies  of  our  peace.  Some 
people  seem  to  think  that  if  a  man  happens  to 
meet  one  of  these  microbes  it  is  all  up  with 
him.  But  the  doctors  and  nurses  in  the  wards 
of  the  hospitals  where  such  patients  are  treated 
probably  have  the  bacilli  of  those  very  diseases 
in  their  mouths  and  noses  and  throats  every 
day  in  the  week,  and  it  is  a  rare  thing  for  any 
of  them  to  contract  the  disease.  If  you  will 
keep  yourself  in  good  health,  physically,  men- 
tally, morally,  you  also  may  walk  unhurt  in 
the  midst  of  a  multitude  of  microbes.  The 
seed  of  disease  may  come  your  way,  but  it 
does  not  find  in  you  good  soil,  or  when  it  falls 
upon  you  the  birds  of  the  air  devour  it  up, 
the  winged  energies  of  your  inner,  positive, 
healthful  life  destroy  it  before  it  has  time  to 
[134] 


l^ealing  po\x)tv  of  ^uggeistton 

take  root,  and  you  pass  on  unhurt.  If  organic 
disease  does  actually  fasten  upon  you  and  you 
need  medical  treatment,  this  same  practice 
of  wholesome  suggestion  which  quiets  the 
mind,  steadies  the  nerves,  fortifies  the  will, 
serves  to  line  up  the  recuperative  energies  and 
to  put  them  in  condition  to  mightily  aid  the 
physician  and  the  nurse  in  making  you  well. 
In  a  serious  surgical  operation  even,  the  chances 
of  recovery  are  greatly  improved  if  the  patient 
goes  to  it  with  a  free  mind,  in  a  happy  mood 
and  with  a  feeling  of  confidence  in  the  outcome 
rather  than  in  a  state  of  fear  and  anxiety. 

Get  it  out  of  your  mind,  if  you  can,  that  you 
are  a  helpless  victim;  the  chances  are  ten  to 
one,  that  you  are  not.  It  probably  lies  within 
your  power  to  come  oflF  more  than  conqueror 
through  Him  who  loves  you.  Make  up  your 
mind  that  you  will  lay  hold  upon  all  the  forces 
seen  and  unseen  which  make  for  health! 
Then,  not  by  some  sudden  dramatic  change, 
but  by  sowing  good  seed  in  good  soil  expect 
as  a  result  in  due  course  of  time  a  harvest  of 
good  health. 

[135] 


jfaitl^  ann  i^ealtl^ 


You  can,  if  you  will,  overcome  your  self- 
distrust,  your  fear  of  failure,  your  sense  of  in- 
adequacy to  your  tasks  by  the  persistent  use 
of  suggestion.  You  can  overcome  your  dis- 
trust of  others,  your  suspicion  as  to  their 
motives,  your  feeling  that  there  must  be  some 
evil  lurking  there  in  the  dark,  your  cynical 
unbelief  of  which  you  are  often  ashamed. 
You  can  overcome  your  morbid  dread  of  the 
future;  most  of  the  things  that  people  worry 
themselves  into  their  graves  about  never 
happen.  You  can  do  all  this  by  the  systematic, 
persistent  use  of  the  power  of  suggestion  in 
inducing  more  wholesome  lines  of  thought 
and  more  healthful  states  of  feeling.  Learn 
to  depend  less  upon  the  without  and  more  upon 
the  within. 

In  my  judgment  we  are  just  brushing  the 
surface  of  the  stores  of  helpfulness  which  lie 
hidden  there.  We  are  doing  just  that  in  many 
quarters.  Electricity  has  been  here  in  the 
world  ever  since  the  lightning  flashed  across 
the  sky  the  day  that  Noah  entered  the  ark 
when  he  saw  the  storm  coming,  but  we  of  this 
[136] 


l^ealtng  p^otuet:  of  ^uggejstton 

generation  are  the  first  to  really  make  use  of 
it.  We  are  just  beginning  to  know  the  power 
of  right  thinking  and  right  feeling  as  they  bear 
upon  health,  sanity  and  character.  When 
you  set  yourself  toward  the  high  and  hard 
task  of  being  made  whole,  all  the  way  up,  all 
the  way  down  and  all  the  way  in,  you  have 
behind  you  and  within  you  the  propelling 
force  of  the  divine  mind  and  the  divine  love 
intent  upon  the  same  great  end.  He  too  is 
seeking  to  banish  fear,  to  bestow  confidence, 
to  increase  faith,  to  promote  healing.  He  too 
is  desirous  that  you  should  gain  peace,  develop 
strength,  secure  happiness  and  enter  into  the 
rest  which  remains  for  the  people  of  God. 
While  you  are  working  out  your  own  salvation 
by  systematic  and  persistent  effort,  God  is 
working  with  you  and  for  you  to  accomplish 
His  good  pleasure. 


[137] 


Cl^e  Cmmanuel  ^oUmtnt 


Ci^e  Emmanuel  jttotement 


HE  apostle  of  old  believed 
strongly  in  the  principle  of 
the  division  of  labor.  He 
believed  that  the  interests  of 
the  physical  body  are  best 
advanced  when  each  member  does  its  own 
appointed  work  and  does  not  undertake  to  do 
the  work  of  some  other  member  for  which  it 
is  neither  adapted  nor  trained.  A  man  will 
be  more  useful  if  he  does  not  try  to  walk  on 
his  hands,  as  a  few  skillful  acrobats  have  been 
able  to  do,  or  to  write  letters  in  curious  fashion 
with  his  feet.  Let  each  member  fulfill  its  own 
appropriate  office. 

And  the  interests  of  society  as  a  whole  will 
be  best  advanced  when  we  recognize  that  there 
are  diversities  of  gifts  but  the  same  Spirit, 
and  that  in  divers  ways  divers  men  can  serve 
the  common  good  as  each  makes  his  own  con- 
[141] 


faitii  anD  l^ealtl^ 


tribution  along  the  line  of  his  particular 
capacity  and  training.  "To  one  is  given  the 
word  of  wisdom  by  the  Spirit  and  to  another 
the  gifts  of  healing  by  the  same  Spirit."  This 
general  principle  indicates  my  personal  atti- 
tude in  regard  to  that  interesting  development 
in  modern  religious  life  known  as  "The  Em- 
manuel Movement." 

You  are  familiar  no  doubt  with  the  main 
facts  connected  with  the  origin  of  this  move- 
ment. Dr.  Elwood  Worcester,  who  is  now 
at  the  head  of  the  movement,  was  formerly 
located  in  Philadelphia  where  he  enjoyed  a 
close  friendship  with  Dr.  S.  Weir  Mitchell,  one 
of  the  most  eminent  nerve  specialists  in  this 
country.  He  then  went  to  Boston  as  rector  of 
the  Emmanuel  Church  on  the  Back  Bay,  and 
Dr.  Samuel  McComb  became  one  of  his  asso- 
ciates. While  neither  of  these  gentlemen  had 
ever  studied  medicine.  Dr.  Worcester  had 
studied  psychology  at  Leipsic  under  Wundt 
and  had  taught  it  for  several  years  at  Lehigh 
University;  Dr.  McComb  had  studied  psy- 
chology at  Oxford,  and  both  of  them  were  in- 
[142] 


Ci^e  Emmanuel  jttotement 

tensely  interested  in  the  principles  of  mental 
healing. 

They  were  men  of  warm  sympathies  and 
they  desired  to  do  something  for  the  physical 
relief  as  well  as  for  the  moral  upbuilding  of 
the  people  who  came  within  their  reach.  They 
started  a  tuberculosis  class  where  the  poor 
people  who  could  not  afford  to  go  to  the  Adiron- 
dacks  or  to  Arizona  were  instructed  how  to 
sleep  out  of  doors  on  porches  or  on  the  fire 
escapes,  or  by  the  use  of  those  modern  win- 
dow appliances,  where  the  head  is  out  of  doors 
while  the  body  is  indoors,  to  compass  the  same 
end.  In  this  way,  even  in  the  narrower  tene- 
ments of  the  poor,  something  was  accom- 
plished for  their  help,  in  combating  tubercu- 
losis of  the  lungs.  The  people  were  also 
taught  useful  ways  of  caring  for  their  health 
and  were  instructed  how  they  might  avoid 
contracting  or  communicating  that  dread 
disease  which  takes  its  terrible  toll  every  year 
from  the  rich  as  well  as  from  the  poor,  but 
especially  in  the  narrow,  crowded  tenements 
of  the  less  fortunate. 

[143] 


fatti^  and  f  ealti^ 


Then  these  good  men  at  Emmanuel  Church 
broadened  the  scope  of  their  work,  and  some 
three  years  ago  started  the  "Emmanuel 
Health  Class."  From  the  very  first  they 
showed  a  sanity  of  method  which  lifts  this 
movement  entirely  out  of  the  class  of  sporadic 
faith  cures  which  are  made  up  mainly  of  good 
intentions  and  excitement,  and  out  of  the  class 
of  those  other  movements  which  are  curious 
mixtures  of  wild,  irrational  metaphysics  and 
dogmatic  assertion,  with  a  total  disregard  for 
scientific  values  or  methods  of  procedure. 
No  patient  is  ever  treated  at  Emmanuel 
Church  until  there  has  been  a  competent 
diagnosis  of  the  case  by  a  regular  physician 
indicating  that  there  is  no  organic  disease 
demanding  medical  or  surgical  treatment,  and 
that  the  case  is  one  which  could  be  properly 
treated  by  psychic  methods.  If  these  facts 
are  established  by  competent  diagnosis  then 
the  case  is  taken  up  by  the  men  at  the  Em- 
manuel Church. 

The  suggestion  is  given  in  a  room  at  the 
church  with  helpful  surroundings  by  either 
[U4] 


Ci^e  Emmanuel  jHotement 

Dr.  Worcester  or  by  one  of  his  associates.  In 
addition  to  these  morning  and  evening  clinics, 
Emmanuel  Church  maintains  a  weekly  public 
service  which  is  in  reality  a  health  class.  There 
is  the  reading  of  scripture,  prayer  and  a  twenty- 
minute  address,  followed  afterward  by  a  half 
hour  for  social  intercourse.  In  addition  to 
the  instruction  given  by  the  rector  and  his 
assistants,  these  meetings  have  been  addressed 
by  Dr.  Cabot  of  Boston,  Dr.  Barker  of  Johns 
Hopkins,  Dr.  Putnam  and  other  well  known 
specialists  in  the  medical  profession.  The 
topics  discussed  have  been  such  as  these: 
Worry;  Anger;  Habit;  Suggestion;  Insom- 
nia; Nervousness;  Peace  in  the  home;  What 
the  will  can  do;  What  prayer  can  do,  and 
other  similar  subjects  of  immediate  interest 
to  those  who  were  suffering  from  the  sort  of 
maladies  to  which  this  movement  has  es- 
pecially addressed  itself. 

In  sensible  fashion  these  men  do  not  disdain 
the  use  of  drugs  or  other  material  agencies 
as  do  those  healers  who  have  lost  their  heads 

and  become  more  or  less  crazy  along  this  line. 
[145] 


iJfatti^  ann  i$tait^ 


If  the  desired  result  can  be  attained  more 
easily  and  more  surely  by  the  use  of  a  drug 
than  by  the  employment  of  suggestion,  they 
do  not  hesitate  to  advise  the  use  of  the  material 
remedy.  If  the  headache  is  found  to  be  due 
to  eye  strain  or  to  astigmatism,  they  believe 
that  an  oculist  and  a  pair  of  spectacles  will 
accomplish  more  than  a  train  load  of  sugges- 
tion. If  medicine  or  surgery  is  indicated, 
then  they  promptly  advise  the  patient  to  avail 
himself  of  the  help  of  the  men  trained  in  the 
use  of  those  lines  of  treatment.  They  rightly 
believe  that  since  God  uses  sunshine,  fresh 
air  and  nourishing  food,  which  are  all  ma- 
terial agencies,  to  increase  health.  He  will  not 
disdain  the  use  of  those  other  material  agen- 
cies which  experience  has  found  valuable. 
There  is  no  more  piety  in  undertaking  to  be 
healed  of  some  disease  by  suggestion  than  by 
quinine;  if  the  disease  happens  to  be  a  bad 
attack  of  malaria  the  use  of  quinine  would  be 
more  directly  in  harmony  with  what  we  know 
of  the  will  of  God.  In  either  case  the  patient 
is  simply  using  some  agency  created  and  ap- 
[146] 


Ci^e  Cmmanuel  jttotiement 

pointed    from    on    high    for    that    beneficent 
purpose. 

These  earnest  and  unselfish  men  at  the  Em- 
manuel Church  have  accompHshed  a  great 
deal  of  good.  A  recently  published  article 
by  Dr.  Cabot  of  Boston  contains  some  de- 
tailed account  of  the  results  of  their  efforts. 
He  studied  the  records  of  their  cases  from 
March  to  November  in  the  year  1907,  a  record 
of  one  hundred  and  seventy-eight  cases.  In 
eighty-two  cases  of  neurasthenia,  twenty  cases 
were  much  improved,  sixteen  slightly  improved, 
seventeen  not  at  all  improved,  and  in  twenty 
cases  the  final  results  were  unknown.  In 
cases  of  alcoholism,  eight  cases  out  of  twenty- 
two  were  much  improved.  In  other  cases  of 
fears,  fixed  ideas,  various  obsessions,  and 
hysteria  about  one  fourth  of  the  patients 
received  marked  benefit  from  this  line  of 
treatment  at  Emmanuel  Church.  There  was 
also  an  encouraging  percentage  of  success  in 
the  treatment  of  those  addicted  to  the  use  of 
drugs,  morphia,  cocaine  and  the  like.    Many 

sad,  discouraged  men  and  women  were  lifted 
[147] 


fatti^  and  l^ealti^ 


into  new  hope  and  enabled  to  take  up  the  old 
life  again  with  a  better  prospect  for  victory. 
Some  who  were  meditating  suicide,  through 
the  loss  of  all  interest  in  life,  were  restrained 
and  were  put  in  the  way  of  living  honorable 
and  useful  lives. 

All  this  is  beautiful,  and  every  man  with  a 
heart  in  his  breast  thanks  God  for  it.  It  is 
indeed  impossible,  as  these  very  men  have 
pointed  out,  for  the  church  to  close  its  eyes  to 
the  example  of  its  Founder  who  not  only 
preached  His  matchless  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
but  opened  the  eyes  of  the  blind  and  caused 
the  lame  to  walk.  It  is  impossible  for  the 
church  to  disregard  that  portion  of  its  great 
commission  which  says  "Heal  the  sick"  as 
well  as  "Preach  the  Gospel."  When  the 
church  does  neglect  its  duty  at  these  points 
and  where  physicians  are  indifferent  to  the 
value  of  mental  and  spiritual  forces  in  over- 
coming disease  then  we  may  look  for  a  full 
crop  of  those  queer  cults  which  have  been 
misleading  large  numbers  of  people  in  recent 

years.     The  people  want  to  know  what  help 
[148] 


Cl^e  Cmmamtel  jHotement 

there  is  along  this  Hne.  The  rapid  growth  of 
these  strange  cults,  covered  all  over  though 
some  of  them  are  with  such  nonsense  as  would 
tend  to  crush  them,  is  a  significant  symptom 
in  our  twentieth  century  life.  And  the  im- 
mense popularity  of  such  books  as  Ralph 
Waldo  Trine's  "In  Tune  with  the  Infinite" 
and  Annie  Payson  Call's  "Power  through 
Repose"  and  Dresser's  "The  Power  of  Si- 
lence" and  Charles  Brodie  Patterson's  "The 
Will  to  be  Well,"  — all  indicate  the  wide  in- 
terest in  and  the  popular  insistence  upon 
knowing  what  can  be  gained  in  that  direction 
for  physical  efficiency  and  for  spiritual  peace. 

The  founders  and  the  friends  of  the  Em- 
manuel Movement,  therefore,  have  an  idea 
that  it  should  be  widely  extended;  that  many 
churches  and  many  ministers  ought  to  take 
it  up  as  a  part  of  their  regular  work.  A 
branch  of  this  movement  has  already  been 
established  with  the  approval  of  the  Bishop 
of  the  diocese  in  connection  with  St.  Luke's 
Hospital  in  the  city  of  San  Francisco.     Here 

and  there  over  the  country  in  various  other 

[149] 


mtt^  anD  i^ealtl^ 


denominations  there  are  little  out-stations  of 
the  Emmanuel  Movement. 

Now  I  wish  to  ask  whether  or  not  such  an 
extension  of  the  Emmanuel  methods  would 
be  wise.  I  wish  to  inquire  what  ought  to  be 
the  attitude  of  intelligent  churches,  ministers, 
and  physicians  toward  this  plan  for  the  wider 
extension  of  this  line  of  effort.  Personally  I 
do  not  believe  that  it  would  be  wise.  I  should 
be  more  than  sorry  to  see  my  own  church 
transformed  in  any  measure  into  a  hospital 
or  a  sanitarium  for  nervous  diseases  or  to 
find  myself  holding  clinics  or  undertaking  to 
practice  as  an  amateur  in  medicine.  By  my 
studies  along  this  line  for  the  last  twenty- 
three  years  as  indicated  in  an  earlier  chapter 
and  through  my  wide  experience  with  people 
suffering  from  nervous  disorders  in  this  large 
parish,  I  might  perhaps  be  as  well  qualified 
for  such  an  effort  as  is  the  average  pastor,  but 
I  should  shrink  utterly  from  such  a  responsi- 
bility. Dr.  Worcester  and  Dr.  McComb  are 
exceptional  men  and  they  have  had  exceptional 
training  in  psychology,  but  even  so  I  seriously 
[150] 


Cl^e  (Emmanuel  jHobement 

question  whether  the  popular  interest  now 
felt  in  this  movement  or  the  present  measure 
of  confidence  given  to  its  general  methods  will 
endure  in  anything  like  the  same  degree  for 
any  considerable  length  of  time. 

Time  was  when  the  Christian  church  had 
everything  under  its  own  control.  If  people 
went  to  the  theater  it  was  to  see  some  morality 
play  like  "Everyman"  or  to  witness  some 
scriptural  presentation  like  the  "Passion  Play" 
at  Oberammergau.  If  they  traveled,  it  was 
upon  a  pilgrimage  to  some  shrine  or  perhaps 
to  the  Holy  Sepulchre  at  Jerusalem.  If  the 
children  went  to  school  it  was  to  a  monk  or 
a  nun ;  the  ecclesiastical  origin  of  popular  edu- 
cation is  indicated  in  the  very  caps  and  gowns 
which  our  professors  and  students  love  to 
wear.  Secular  authority  took  its  sanction 
not  from  the  consent  of  the  governed  or  from 
the  suffrages  of  the  people,  but  from  the  sacred 
anointing  and  coronation  of  some  official 
by  the  church  —  the  king  was  "  the  Lord's 
anointed."  And  in  like  manner  when  people 
were  sick,  some  official  of  the  church  came 
[151] 


f  aiti^  and  J^ealtl^ 


and  anointed  them  with  oil,  prayed  over  them 
and  perhaps  administered  such  material  reme- 
dies as  were  known  to  the  rude  practice  of 
that  early  time. 

Whatever  we  may  think  of  this  regime  in 
its  own  day,  it  has  utterly  gone.  Do  we  want 
to  return  to  that  or  to  any  considerable  meas- 
ure of  it.^  Do  we  want  to  confuse  the  work 
of  the  physician,  for  example,  with  the  work 
of  the  minister  of  religion.?  I  do  not  believe 
that  we  do;  I  believe  it  would  be  bad  for 
the  physician  and  still  worse  for  the  minister 
and  worst  of  all  for  the  community.  If  we 
should  come  to  have  any  widespread  practice 
of  medicine  by  the  untrained,  —  for  this  is 
what  it  would  mean, — the  very  fact  that  it 
was  being  done  in  the  name  of  religion  would 
tend  "to  break  down  the  confidence  of  the 
people  in  the  value  of  expert  knowledge,  to 
raise  in  them  false  and  unwarranted  expecta- 
tions, to  feed  superstitious  sentiments  and  to 
blind  them  to  the  solid,  verifiable  order  of 
life  in  which  our  work  must  be  done."  It 
would  have  a  tendency  to  do  exactly  what 
[152] 


I 


Christian  Science  is  doing  in  wholesale  fashion 
in  muddling  the  minds  of  its  devotees  beyond 
all  possibility  of  normal  action  and  expansion. 
To  one  is  given  the  word  of  wisdom,  the  word 
of  moral  instruction  and  of  spiritual  appeal, 
the  word  of  comfort,  uplift  and  invigoration 
for  the  inner  life;  to  another  is  given  the  gift 
of  healing  by  a  difference  of  operation  but  by 
the  same  Spirit.  It  is  altogether  right  that  this 
important  distinction  should  be  kept  clear. 

Suppose  that  the  case  has  been  diagnosed 
by  a  competent  physician  and  that  there  is 
no  organic  disease  present,  what  a  responsi- 
bility for  the  minister  of  religion  to  take  over 
into  his  care  some  nervous  sufferer.  He  is 
invading  what  is  perhaps  the  most  delicate 
and  the  most  difficult  domain  of  medical 
science,  the  treatment  of  nervous  disease, 
and  he  is  doing  it  "without  medical  training 
enough  to  enable  him  to  pass  the  first  year's 
examinations  in  any  reputable  medical  school 
in  the  land."  Good  intentions  and  ordinary 
common  sense  are  not  sufficient  for  many  of 

the  responsibilities  which  confront  us.     They 
[153] 


ifatti^  and  i^ealti^ 


are  not  suflBcient,  for  example,  to  determine 
whether  some  individual  is  suffering  from 
appendicitis,  to  decide  whether  an  operation  is 
imperative,  or  to  indicate  how  that  operation 
can  best  be  performed.  No  man  in  his  senses 
would  think  for  a  moment  that  his  good  inten- 
tions and  common  sense,  his  sympathy  with 
the  sufferer,  and  his  smattering  of  medical 
knowledge  would  warrant  him  in  using  the 
knife  upon  his  fellowman  in  such  a  case.  And 
in  that  delicate  and  diflficult  domain  of  nervous 
disease  mere  good  intentions  and  common 
sense,  joined  with  a  general  knowledge  of 
psychology,  are  in  like  manner  altogether 
insufficient.  Such  a  combination  ought  not  to 
presume  to  take  any  invalid  out  of  the  hands 
of  a  physician  trained  and  fitted  for  that  par- 
ticular line  of  treatment. 

I  believe  in  every  word  written  in  the  pre- 
ceding chapter  on  the  power  of  suggestion. 
I  believe  in  it  because  I  have  tested  these 
claims  by  long  continued  experience.  I  be- 
lieve that  it  is  good  for  the  minister  to  go  to 
the  sick  room  and  to  the  hospital.  He  might 
[154] 


Ci^e  Cmntanuel  jWiotement 

well  make  his  visitation  of  his  people  a  kind 
of  general  treatment.  If  he  is  a  wise  and  good 
man,  he  can  oftentimes  by  his  sympathy,  his 
tact,  and  his  religious  faith  render  great  as- 
sistance to  the  physician,  to  the  nurse,  and  to 
the  members  of  some  anxious  household  in 
what  they  are  seeking  to  do  for  some  sufferer. 
But  I  am  confident  that  he  can  best  do  all  this 
when  he  goes  as  a  minister  of  religion  and  not 
in  any  sense  as  an  amateur  dabbler  in  the 
practice  of  medicine.  I  desire  to  help  every 
one  of  my  people  in  all  the  ways  that  I  can; 
I  have  given  a  great  many  hours  in  my  present 
parish  during  the  last  fourteen  years  to  efforts 
which  had  to  do  with  nervous  and  mental 
troubles.  But  I  never  wish  to  take  any  patient 
for  a  day,  or  for  an  hour,  out  of  the  hands  of  a 
physician  who  has  been  trained  to  do  a  work 
for  which  I  am  not  trained.  I  wish  to  stand  as 
his  ally,  but  not  in  any  sense  as  a  substitute 
for  him.  To  me  the  word  of  spiritual  wisdom 
is  given  by  the  Spirit  and  to  him  the  gift  of 
healing  by  the  same  Spirit. 
We  will  suppose  again  that  the  case  has  been 
[156] 


faitift  and  l^ealti^ 


diagnosed  by  a  physician  as  one  not  suffering 
from  organic  disease  and  then  is  turned  over 
to  the  minister  as  a  case  which  could  be  prop- 
erly' treated  by  psychotherapy.  The  wise 
physician  who  is  treating  a  case  often  modifies 
his  diagnosis  as  time  goes  on.  He  learns  more 
about  the  case  and  there  may  come  the  de- 
velopment of  new  symptoms.  The  diagnosis 
of  a  month  ago  may  not  be  a  proper  diagnosis 
to-day.  Who  is  to  decide  all  these  questions 
when  the  case  is  no  longer  in  the  hands  of 
one  who  has  been  trained  in  the  science  of 
diagnosis  ? 

Suppose  it  is  only  a  case  of  neurasthenia 
and  not  a  tumor  on  the  brain !  Shall  we  in 
endeavoring  to  utilize  the  aid  of  mental  and 
spiritual  suggestion,  neglect  those  physical 
factors  which  enter  into  the  treatment  even 
of  these  disorders  —  such  matters  as  diet,  mas- 
sage, baths,  douches,  electricity,  and  what 
not.''  If  we  are  not  to  neglect  them  and  the 
minister  himself  is  to  prescribe  along  these 
lines,  as  well  as  administer  mental  and  spirit- 
ual treatment,  then  you  simply  have  an  amateur 
[156] 


Ci^e  cBmmanuel  jHotement 

instead  of  a  trained  man  using  those  agencies 
which  may  be  used  in  such  a  way  that  they 
will  count  for  good  or  may  be  used  in  such 
a  way  as  to  work  serious  injury  to  the  patient. 

I  find  myself  therefore  in  hearty  sympathy 
with  that  clear  word  of  Professor  Freud  of 
Vienna,  one  of  the  most  eminent  psychologists 
in  Europe.  He  said  in  a  public  address  in 
this  country  recently,  "  When  I  think  that  there 
are  many  physicians  who  have  been  studying 
psychotherapy  for  decades  who  yet  practice 
it  with  the  greatest  caution,  this  introduction 
of  a  few  men  without  medical,  or  with  only 
superficial  medical,  training,  seems  to  me  of 
questionable  good." 

I  also  agree  heartily  with  Professor  Miin- 
sterberg  of  Harvard  who  believes  that  this 
Emmanuel  Movement,  if  widely  copied,  would 
cheapen  religion  in  putting  the  emphasis  as 
to  the  meaning  of  life  upon  personal  comfort 
and  the  absence  of  pain  rather  than  upon 
character,  pain  or  no  pain.  Dr.  Worcester 
and  Dr.  McComb  are  wise  men  and  they  may 
be  able  to  keep  this  distinction  clear,  but  the 
[167] 


jfatt)^  anu  l^ealtl^ 


thousands  of  little  ministers  all  over  the  coun- 
try who  are  liable  to  undertake  this  work,  just 
as  thousands  of  little  reformers  of  the  slums 
were  emboldened  by  the  dramatic  experiences 
of  Dr.  Parkhurst  in  New  York  to  attempt 
work  similar  to  that  of  the  heroic  and  devoted 
prophet  of  righteousness  in  Madison  Square,  — • 
these  little  ministers  entering  upon  the  Em- 
manuel Movement  might  not  be  able  to  keep 
that  vital  distinction  clear. 

"But  it  is  such  an  opportunity  for  the  church," 
men  say,  "in  these  days  of  spiritual  apathy 
when  so  many  men  are  turning  away  from  the 
church !  What  a  magnificent  chance  to  bring 
the  people  back  and  to  fill  the  pews !"  This  is 
undoubtedly  a  correct  contention.  It  would, 
if  generally  adopted,  fill  the  pews,  for  a  time  at 
least,  probably  to  overflowing.  For  that  mat- 
ter if  any  minister  were  to  announce  that  by  the 
grace  of  some  rich  man  in  his  congregation, 
he  would  give  a  silver  dollar  to  every  person 
present  at  the  service  next  Sunday  evening, 
that,  too,  would  fill  the  pews.  It  would  fill 
them  to  overflowing  as  long  as  he  might  be 
[158] 


Cl^e  Cmmanuel  J^obement 

able  to  keep  it  up,  no  matter  what  he  preached 
about  or  whether  he  preached  at  all.  But 
what  would  become  of  religion  meanwhile  ? 
What  would  become  of  the  church  as  a  moral 
leader,  as  a  source  of  spiritual  inspiration,  as 
a  character-forming  agency !  He  would  have 
a  crowd  and  many  needy  people  would  get  the 
silver  dollars  and  the  church  as  a  form  of 
spiritual   uplift  would  be  gone ! 

If  there  is  one  place  on  this  green  earth  where 
it  ought  to  be  made  plain,  beyond  all  possi- 
bility of  misunderstanding,  that  personal  com- 
fort and  the  absence  of  pain  are  not  the  first 
nor  the  main  considerations  in  life,  it  is  in  the 
Christian  church.  Health  is  important,  but 
health  is  subordinate  to  other  more  vital  in- 
terests. The  great  question  is  not  as  to  whether 
a  man  feels  well  but  what  he  means  to  do  with 
his  healthy  vigor.  The  main  question  is  not  as 
to  whether  he  may  continue  to  live  for  fourscore 
years  or  even  fivescore,  but  what  sort  of  man  he 
intends  to  be  during  that  period  of  prolonged 
moral  opportunity.  "What  shall  I  eat?"  and 
"What  shall  I  drink?"  and  "How  will  it  agree 
[159] 


f aiti^  auD  l$talt\) 


with  me  after  I  have  eaten  it?"  are  all  neces- 
sary inquiries,  but  they  are  secondary.  The 
first  question  is,  Am  I  worth  feeding?  Is  it 
important  that  I  should  be  kept  alive  and  well  ? 
Does  the  world  need  men  of  my  type?  The 
life  is  more  than  the  meat  or  the  medicine 
administered  to  secure  a  continuance  of  that 
particular  life. 

The  old  and  well  known  order  has  not  been 
changed  by  any  Act  of  Congress  or  by  the 
wild  fancies  of  any  fanatics ;  by  the  lazy  wish  of 
those  who  are  too  feeble  to  fight  or  by  the 
kindly  and  useful  service  rendered  by  the 
two  men  who  are  mainly  responsible  for  the  Em- 
manuel Movement  —  the  old  order  has  not  in 
any  wise  been  changed.  It  still  stands  — 
"Seek  FIRST  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His 
righteousness,"  and  then  afterward,  on  that 
adequate  basis,  the  other  things  by  other  forms 
of  effort  are  to  be  "added."  It  is  not  for  the 
Christian  church,  surely,  to  lead  off  in  aban- 
doning that  divine  order  of  procedure. 

But  suppose  the  minister  of  the  parish  were 
ever  so  much  more  competent  than  he  is  com- 
[160] 


Cl^e  Cmmanuel  jHotement 

monly  believed  to  be  for  the  practice  of  medi- 
cine, and  suppose  it  were  deemed  desirable 
that  he  should  enter  into  competition  with 
the  physician  in  the  treatment  of  disease, 
certain  particular  kinds  of  nervous  disease, 
we  will  say,  even  then  I  do  not  see  how  he  would 
have  the  time  to  attend  to  that  work  in  any- 
thing but  a  superficial  fashion  which  would 
be  morally  wrong  as  well  as  sadly  inefiFective. 
It  only  takes  a  moment  to  write  a  prescription 
and  it  does  not  require  any  great  amount  of 
time  to  perform  certain  surgical  operations. 
But  to  possess  one's  self  of  the  history  of  a 
case  of  nervous  disorder,  neurasthenia,  hys- 
teria, melancholy,  to  learn  all  the  facts  and  dis- 
cover all  the  symptoms  which  are  significant, 
and  to  so  study  that  particular  case  in  what  is 
regarded  as  the  most  delicate  and  difficult 
department  of  medical  science,  as  to  be  able  to 
rightly  prescribe,  —  this  requires  the  work  of 
hours  and  of  days,  it  may  be  of  weeks  and  of 
months.  No  man  who  is  striving  to  make  him- 
self useful  along  the  line  of  moral  and  spiritual 
leadership  can  do  that  as  a  kind  of  side  issue 
[161] 


^aitt)  and  i^ealti^ 


which  he  has  taken  on  in  addition  to  his  reg- 
ular work.  No  man  has  the  time,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  ability,  to  do  that  except  some  special- 
ist who  has  been  trained  for  that  particular 
work  and  whose  main  business  in  life  is  to  ren- 
der that  special  form  of  service  to  mankind. 
To  one  is  given  the  word  of  spiritual  wisdom 
and  the  opportunity  to  speak  it  out  helpfully; 
to  another  the  gifts  of  healing  and  the  chance 
to  exercise  them  usefully  by  the  same  wise  and 
holy  Spirit. 

More  than  that,  I  should  greatly  question  the 
wisdom  of  holding  regularly  a  church  service 
for  the  consideration  and  treatment  of  nervous 
troubles.  Some  people  in  the  community  would 
be  greatly  helped  by  the  instruction  and  the 
sympathy  of  such  a  service.  Other  nervous 
sufferers  who  would  almost  certainly  be  at- 
tracted by  it  might  be  greatly  harmed  by  the 
same  service.  A  very  little  strychnia  is  useful 
as  a  nerve  tonic,  and  a  little  more  strychnia  will 
act  as  a  deadly  poison  and  destroy  life.  A 
certain  measure  of  sjmapathy  may  save  a  ner- 
vous sufferer  from  despair,  and  a  certain  larger 
[162] 


Ci^e  Emmanuel  pioUmmt 

measure  of  sympathy  unwisely  expressed  might 
induce  that  same  sufferer  to  lie  down  and  lapse 
into  helpless  and  hopeless  invalidism  where  a 
hard  resolute  fight  would  have  brought  victory. 
It  does  not  seem  possible  to  administer  either 
strychnia  or  sympathy  in  wholesale  fashion  to  a 
crowd  of  patients.  The  regular  church  ser- 
vice for  administering  such  treatment  for  ner- 
vous diseases  as  might  be  possible  would  both 
kill  and  cure  in  any  miscellaneous  company  of 
nervously  depressed  people  who  might  be  thus 
brought  together.  I  have  never  heard  of  any 
nerve  specialist  who  dealt  with  his  patients  in 
classes,  and  I  do  not  believe  the  Christian  church 
is  any  more  competent  to  undertake  such  a 
wholesale  method. 

It  would  furthermore  be  calculated  to  develop 
an  epidemic  of  nervous  and  mental  troubles. 
It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  when  medical 
students  are  studying  the  various  diseases  a 
considerable  percentage  of  them  develop  tem- 
porarily the  symptoms  of  the  very  diseases 
which  are  thus  engaging  their  minds.  These 
medical  students  as  a  rule  are  healthy  minded, 
[163] 


iJfaitift  ann  J^ealti^ 


vigorous  young  men;  picture  the  result  where 
a  company  of  suggestible  and  in  many  cases 
nervously  disordered  people  are  brought  to- 
gether once  a  week  for  the  consideration  of 
nervous  troubles.  They  would  have  sug- 
gested to  them  more  ills  than  they  had  ever 
known  about  before,  and  in  many  cases  would 
go  away  to  reproduce  in  their  own  nervous  ex- 
perience all  manner  of  hysteria  and  neuras- 
thenia. 

It  does  not  seem  wise  for  the  Christian  church 
to  single  out  a  solitary  therapeutic  agency, 
suggestion,  whether  given  in  the  fully  con- 
scious or  in  a  semi-hypnotic  state,  and  upon 
that  one  agency  rear  a  new  department  of  church 
work.  This  is  precisely  what  the  Christian 
Science  people  have  done.  They  have  built 
their  entire  system  of  ministering  to  human 
suffering  upon  one  agent,  and  they  not  only 
neglect,  they  are  openly  taught  by  their  leader 
to  think  scornfully  of  all  other  agencies,  drugs, 
surgery,  electricity,  baths,  exercise,  which 
God  has  ordained  for  our  physical  help.  To 
thus  build  a  new  form  of  church  life  upon  a 
[164] 


Cl^e  €mmanuel  jHotement 

single  remedial  agency  does  not  seem  wise 
even  though  the  minister  may  be  conscien- 
tiously trying  to  act  in  conjunction  with  the 
physician  by  having  him  diagnose  the  case  at 
the  start,  or  by  referring  to  him  cases  where 
suggestion  is  not  especially  indicated.  The 
simplest  sort  of  mental  life  represents  a  bewil- 
dering complexity  of  elements  and  forces.  And 
for  the  proper  treatment  of  any  sort  of  nervous 
trouble  it  may  be  that  several  other  agencies 
beside  this  useful  and  powerful  one  of  sugges- 
tion should  be  utilized  together. 

The  most  friendly  relations  and  the  highest 
form  of  co-operation  between  the  doctor  of 
medicine  and  the  minister  of  religion  can  best 
be  secured  where  both  realize  that  each  one 
has  an  entirely  distinct  function  to  perform  for 
the  service  of  humanity  and  where  both  realize 
that  each  can  best  aid  the  other  by  attending 
strictly  to  his  own  specialty.  The  spiritual 
ministry,  which  quiets  the  mind,  steadies  the 
nerves,  and  fortifies  the  will,  is  of  great  value 
to  the  doctor  of  medicine  in  his  fight  against 

disease.     And  conversely  the  removal  of  pain 
[166] 


fatti^  anD  J^eaitl^ 


and  the  strengthening  of  the  body  opens  the 
way  for  a  more  complete  realization  in  that  in- 
dividual life  of  those  high  ideals  held  aloft  by 
the  minister  of  religion.  It  is  for  the  minis- 
ter to  say  steadily,  "Seek  first  the  kingdom  of 
God  and  His  righteousness,  for  this  is  the  only 
adequate  basis  upon  which  all  the  great  inter- 
ests of  life  can  safely  rest."  And  it  is  for  the 
physician  to  say,  "Seek  health,  not  because  it 
is  the  highest  or  the  chief  good  in  life,  but  be- 
cause a  wholesome  attention  to  those  command- 
ing spiritual  ideals  is  not  possible  where  the 
body  is  racked  with  pain,  and  because  the  per- 
fect realization  of  them  can  be  best  attained 
where  there  is  a  sound  physique,  as  a  basis 
for  mental  and  spiritual  advance." 

Let  the  young  physicians  be  more  fully  in- 
structed in  the  medical  schools  in  the  princi- 
ples of  psychology  as  well  as  in  the  facts  of 
physiology.  The  mood  and  the  need  of  our 
age  imperatively  demand  it.  By  that  thorough 
study  the  physicians  themselves  will  be  made 
competent  to  render  service  along  those  lines, 
and  they  will  also  be  the  more  inclined  to  in- 
[166] 


Cl^e  Cmmanuel  ^oumtnt 

vite  the  co-operation  of  the  minister  of  religion. 
Let  the  ministers  of  religion  forsake  any 
secondary  ambitions  they  may  have  to  be- 
come amateur  dabblers  in  medicine;  let  them 
strive  to  be  more  fully  competent  in  aiding  the 
people  "to  live  in  the  vision  and  service  of  the 
greatest  ideals  of  the  race."  Let  them  study 
to  be  workmen  approved  unto  God,  guiding  and 
inducing  the  people  to  lay  hold  upon  those 
forces  seen  and  unseen  which  make  for  the  real- 
ization of  those  greatest  ideals.  In  this  diverse 
yet  sympathetic  service,  the  interests  of  the 
community  will  be  best  advanced  towards  that 
great  consummation  in  health  and  in  character 
where  the  Lord  of  all  the  higher  values  will  have 
forgiven  all  our  iniquities  and  will  have  healed 
all  our  diseases. 


[167] 


Ci^e  (Bomi  of  (I50DD  ^^taltt) 


VI 


Ci^e  (Bo^vtl  of  (0OOD  l^ealtlft' 


N  the  vision  of  the  seer,  "the 
leaves  of  the  tree  were  for 
the  healing  of  the  nations." 
The  leaves,  rather  than  the 
fruit,  became  in  his  mind  the 
graceful  symbols  of  the  divine  interest  in  the 
curing  of  disease.  The  leaves  represent  that 
which  is  incidental,  a  kind  of  by-product. 
The  main  business  of  the  tree  was  to  produce 
fruit ;  it  bore  fruit  every  month  —  "  all  manner 
of  fruit"  — and  undoubtedly  the  same  kind  of 
fruit  as  that  named  by  the  apostle.  Now  "  the 
fruit  of  the  Spirit,"  he  says,  "is  love,  joy, 
peace,  patience,  gentleness,  goodness,  faith- 
fulness, mildness  and  self-control."  These 
useful  moral  qualities  are  the  fruits  of  the 
Spirit;  the  type  of  character  here  indicated  is 
the  real  fruit  which  the  tree  of  life  is  intended 
to  produce  in  the  garden  of  human  experience. 

'  Copyrighted,  1908,  by  Luther  H.  Gary. 
[171] 


mt^  and  l$talt\^ 


But  incidental  to  its  main  purpose,  thrown  in 
as  you  might  say,  there  is  a  further  ministry  to 
good  health  —  "  the  leaves  of  the  tree  are  for 
the  healing  of  the  nations." 

It  is  well  to  make  this  distinction  clear  be- 
cause in  all  our  communities  there  are  groups 
of  religiously  disposed  people  who  make  physi- 
cal healing  the  central  object  of  their  interest. 
They  talk  about  it,  they  think  about  it,  they 
write  about  it,  incessantly.  In  their  published 
statements  they  deny  the  very  existence  of  dis- 
ease, but  with  a  curious  inconsistency  they  at 
once  proceed  to  spend  their  main  strength  in  an 
heroic  effort  to  heal  that  non-existent  illness 
without  the  use  of  drugs.  In  doing  this  they 
virtually  narrow  down  their  religious  interest 
to  the  business  of  raising  leaves.  When  the 
day  of  judgment  comes  it  is  to  be  feared  that 
many  of  them  will  have  "nothing  but  leaves" 
to  show,  for  the  reason  that  they  have  been 
slighting  the  weightier  matters  of  useful  and 
unselfish  service  in  their  zeal  to  "demon- 
strate" their  ability  to  keep  these  perishable 
bodies  in  good  trim.  To  do  this  is  to  un- 
[172] 


Cl^e  (3o^ptl  of  (00011  i^ealtl^ 

duly  exalt  that  which  is  incidental  and  make 
it  central. 

We  shall  part  company  with  these  physical 
bodies  of  ours  very  soon  at  best.  The  great 
question,  therefore,  is  not  whether  a  man  has  a 
good  liver  and  a  sound  stomach,  but  whether 
he  is  sane  and  true,  whether  he  is  upright, 
unselfish,  serviceable  in  his  personal  character. 
These  groups  of  religious  people  who  make 
physical  healing  their  chief  concern  can  show 
a  considerable  number  of  cures  of  a  certain  sort ; 
they  are  in  the  leaf  business,  and  it  would  be 
strange  if  they  did  not  at  times  produce  fairly 
good  crops  of  these  leaves.  But  when  you  make 
inquiry  as  to  the  general  yield  of  fruit  in  the 
form  of  useful  service,  when  you  ask  them  about 
providing  homes  for  the  orphans  and  the  aged, 
about  making  provision  for  the  poor  through 
wisely  administered  and  generously  sustained 
charities,  about  bringing  to  bear  those  better 
influences  upon  the  neglected  portions  of  our 
cities  through  social  settlements  and  other  val- 
ued forms  of  endeavor,  about  providing  well- 
rounded  Christian  men  and  women  thoroughly 
[173] 


f  aiti^  anD  i^ealtl^ 


furnished  for  every  good  work,  they  have  not 
much  to  say  for  themselves.  They  have  un- 
fortunately been  occupied  for  the  most  part  in 
raising  those  leaves  which  are  for  the  healing 
of  certain  minor  bodily  ailments. 

Their  successes  are  to  be  found  mainly,  if 
not  solely,  in  the  correction  of  certain  functional 
troubles  as  distinct  from  cases  of  organic  disease. 
The  principle  of  suggestion  which  they  employ 
has  value  in  maladies  which  have  their  origin 
in  nervous  or  mental  disorders,  but  it  seems 
thus  far  to  have  had  little  or  no  efficacy  in 
the  face  of  serious  organic  disease  such  as 
cancer,  tuberculosis  of  the  lungs,  or  Bright's 
disease.  It  was  Dr.  S.  Weir  Mitchell,  one  of 
the  leading  specialists  in  America,  who  said 
recently,  "There  is  no  scientific  record  of 
any  form  of  organic  disease  having  been  cured 
by  any  form  of  influence  exerted  through  the 
mind."  In  view  of  this  fact  it  would  surely  be 
for  the  safety  of  children  and  of  the  untaught 
generally  if  mental  healers  could  be  induced, 
either  by  law  or  by  the  power  of  public  opinion, 
to  confine  their  efforts  to  that  class  of  cases 
[174] 


Ci^e  (I5oj2ipel  of  (13oot>  J^ealtl^ 

where  scientific  research  and  wide  experience 
unite  in  indicating  that  suggestive  therapeutics 
may  operate  with  some  hope  of  success. 

But  bearing  in  mind  the  distinction  between 
what  is  central  and  what  is  incidental  to  the 
main  purpose  of  the  gospel,  it  is  in  order  to 
ask  what  is  here  offered  us  in  our  Bible  for  our 
physical  health.  The  Church  of  Jesus  Christ 
ought  to  "teach  health,"  not  as  its  chief  busi- 
ness, but  as  a  leaf  on  the  tree  of  its  main  pur- 
pose, which,  as  already  indicated,  is  to  pro- 
duce the  good  fruit  of  Christian  character  and 
service.  We  have  been  unnecessarily  fright- 
ened, perhaps,  by  the  nonsense  and  wildfire 
which  so  often  characterize  this  phase  of  re- 
ligious experience.  We  have  neglected  what 
had  better  have  been  patiently  cultivated  with 
intelligence  and  love.  We  would  not  have  so 
many  religious  side-shows  to-day  if  the  per- 
formance in  the  main  tent  had  been  to  a  greater 
degree  well-rounded  and  complete.  We  ought 
to  be  able  to  offer  to  all  who  come  the  total 
helpfulness  of  the  gospel  of  Christ. 

It  has  seemed  to  many  people  that  in  the  last 
[175] 


iffaitl^  ann  i^ealti^ 


half  of  the  nineteenth  century  there  was  a  wide- 
spread tendency  to  depend  too  much  on  the 
without  and  not  enough  on  the  within.  West- 
ward the  star  of  empire  took  its  way  for 
centuries,  seeking  new  fields  for  material  de- 
velopment. Now,  as  some  said  recently,  "In- 
ward the  star  of  empire  takes  its  way."  There 
has  come  a  wholesome  reaction  from  the  almost 
idolatrous  trust  in  material  things  and  a  quick- 
ening of  interest  in  forces  unseen.  Men  and 
women  have  begun  anew  to  cultivate,  to  honor, 
to  confide  in,  that  which  is  within,  and  this  dis- 
position shows  itself  in  many  ways.  The 
kingdoms  of  this  world,  bodily  health,  mental 
development,  social  charm,  useful  action,  are  by 
this  movement  from  within  becoming  more 
truly  and  steadily  kingdoms  of  the  Spirit  of 
Christ,  no  longer  rebellious,  no  longer  sepa- 
rate and  independent,  but  submissive  and  har- 
monious kingdoms  of  the  divine  Spirit. 

And  it  is  the  belief  of  many  thoughtful  people 

that  the  main  hope  of  our  Christian  world  for 

improved  health,  and  for  the  consequent  larger 

joy  and  effectiveness,  lies  not  so  much  in  the 

[176] 


Cl^e  (^o^ptl  of  CBiooD  i^ealti^ 

increased  efficiency  of  medical  science  in  deal- 
ing with  disease  when  it  has  actually  fastened 
upon  the  patient,  important  as  this  is,  as  in  so 
strengthening  the  inner  life  that  increased 
immunity  from  the  inroads  of  disease  may  be 
attained. 

Here  is  a  gold  mine,  not  far  away  in  the  moun- 
tains, but  deeply  buried  in  your  own  inner 
life !  It  has  never  been  adequately  worked. 
You  have  your  mind  and  spirit  always  with 
you,  and  they  are  always  in  touch  with  all  your 
members;  they  sustain  sympathetic  and  vital 
relations  with  all  those  functions  upon  which  we 
depend  for  healthy  life.  These  inner  forces  may 
be  utilized  by  intelligent  faith  and  a  wisely 
directed  will  in  a  way  that  will  put  you  in  pos- 
session of  wonderful  values  which  for  years, 
perhaps,  have  been  hidden  under  the  soil  of 
thoughtlessness  and  indifference.  You  can, 
if  you  will,  dig  down  and  develop  that  which 
is  within  you,  so  that  it  will  earn  for  you  and 
for  those  you  love  priceless  dividends ! 

Let  me  indicate  then  certain  points  in  this 
gospel  of  good  health  as  it  stands  declared  in 
[177] 


faitt)  anu  l^ealti^ 


Holy  Scripture.  It  is  imperative  first  of  all 
that  one  should  cultivate  the  habit  of  right 
thinking,  for  "  As  a  man  thinketh  in  his  heart, 
so  is  he."  Mental  attitudes  persistently  main- 
tained have  a  tendency  to  register  themselves 
for  good  or  ill  in  physical  conditions.  Right 
thoughts  make  for  sound  health,  while  wrong 
thoughts  invite  and  encourage  the  inroads  of 
disease. 

This  primary  necessity  of  keeping  the  mental 
life  wholesome  imposes  a  serious  obligation,  for 
it  is  much  more  diflficult  to  cultivate  right 
thoughts,  right  desires,  right  purposes  so  that 
these  shall  steadily  bear  rule  within,  than  it  is 
to  go  and  take  something  out  of  a  bottle.  The 
higher  levels  of  human  eflBciency  are  never 
reached  without  hard  climbing.  But  the  cry, 
"  Good  health  for  a  dollar  a  bottle,"  is  rapidly 
becoming  a  spent  force.  The  cry  of  good  health 
at  the  price  of  the  cultivation  and  training  of 
all  one's  powers,  physical,  mental,  spiritual,  by 
bringing  them  into  joyous  harmony  with  the 
revealed  will  of  God,  is  now  to  the  fore. 

And  this  mode  of  treatment  has  this  further 
[178] 


Ci^e  (^o^ptl  of  (^ooD  i^ealtlft 

advantage,  that  it  may,  and  to  be  genuinely 
and  permanently  eflSicacious  must,  include  the 
culture  and  development  of  the  entire  inner 
life  in  a  way  that  taking  something  out  of  a 
bottle  does  not.  Many  of  us  will  live  to  see 
the  day  when  there  will  be  growing  on  all  sides 
these  trees  of  life  covered  with  leaves  for  the 
healing  of  the  nations;  and  the  common  peo- 
ple, having  heard  the  good  news  gladly,  will 
be  constantly  utilizing  this  source  of  help  for 
their  improved  health.  Strive  to  reach  the 
point  where  you  can  look  up  and  say,  "Thy 
thoughts  are  my  thoughts,  and  Thy  ways  are 
my  ways,  O  Lord,"  and  you  will  be  in  line  of 
promotion  toward  the  fulfillment  of  your  high- 
est hopes. 

In  the  very  forefront  of  all  the  harassing 
apprehensions  which  destroy  peace  of  mind  and 
invite  the  approach  of  certain  forms  of  disease, 
marches  this  terrible  fear  of  possible  physical 
inadequacy.  It  cannot  be  lightly  regarded; 
we  cannot  shoo  it  away  by  a  wave  of  the  hand 
or  by  some  fantastic  flourish  of  the  mind.  The 
people  who  assert  that  the  thing  feared  has  no 
[1791 


faiti^  and  J^ealti^ 


reality  are  simply  flighty.  Sickness  and  pain, 
disease  and  death,  are  all  stern  realities  to  be 
met  and  faced,  and,  as  far  as  may  be,  con- 
quered. The  vital  question  is  in  what  mood 
we  can  best  approach  them  when  they  come. 

I  know  of  none  better  than  the  high  mood 
of  the  singer  who  sang  in  olden  time,  "I  will 
fear  no  evil,  for  Thou  art  with  me."  With  all 
the  practical  wisdom  he  has,  let  each  man  shape 
means  to  ends ;  let  him  lay  hold  of  every  avail- 
able form  of  assistance  in  averting  and  in 
counteracting  sickness,  sorrow,  adversity  and 
failure.  But  when  all  these  visible  forms  of 
assistance  are  in  commission,  let  him  know 
that  it  will  add  to  his  prospect  of  victory  im- 
measurably if  he  makes  his  struggle  unabashed, 
unafraid,  because  he  has  caught  the  spirit  of 
that  song  and  has  embodied  it  in  those  thought 
habits  which  dominate  his  inner  life. 

I  will  not  fear !  Suppose  each  morning  when 
you  awake  to  a  hard  day,  you  utilize  the  well 
known  principle  of  mental  suggestion  by  de- 
liberately storing  the  mind  with  right  thoughts. 
Begin  your  day  with  the  repetition  of  certain 
[180] 


Ci^e  (5o^ptl  of  dDiooD  l^ealti^ 

assurances  from  Holy  Writ,  uttering  them  over 
and  over  with  your  lips  and  your  mind  and  your 
soul,  until  the  full  strength  of  them  is  felt^  in 
/every  cell  of  your  being.  "I  will  fear  no  evil, 
1  for  Thou  art  with  me."  "  In  quietness  and  l- 
'  confidence  shall  be  my  strength."  "  The  Lord 
of  hosts  is  with  me;  the  God  of  Jacob  is  my 
refuge."  "He  forgiveth  all  my  iniquities;  he 
healeth  all  my  diseases;  he  redeemeth  my  life 
from  destruction ;  he  satisfieth  my  mouth  with 
good  things,  so  that  my  youth  is  renewed  like 
the  eagle's ! "  Begin  the  day  with  these  prom- 
ises ringing  in  your  ears,  singing  through  the 
secret  chambers  of  your  mind,  throbbing  with 
added  strength  in  the  pulsations  of  your  heart ! 
When  you  relax  the  tired  muscles  and  the 
weary  brain  at  night  as  you  sink  to  sleep,  do 
it  with  these  same  confident  assurances  fur- 
nishing your  final  mood  and  yielding  their 
wholesome,  restful  influence  through  all  the 
hours  of  sleep ! 

I  cannot  tell  you  all  it  would  mean  for  you 
to  do  just  this,  but  I  could  tell  you  much. 
My  report  would  be  bom  of  long  experience 
[181] 


fait^  anD  J^ealtl^ 


in  a  busy,  strenuous  life  where  all  the  aids, 
seen  and  unseen,  were  needed,  and  where  when 
once  brought  into  commission  they  have  vin- 
dicated the  high  claims  I  here  advance  on 
their  behalf.  The  habit  of  serious,  resolute, 
trustful  meditation  upon  these  divine  assur- 
ances, once  formed  and  held,  works  its  own 
marvels.  Souls  once  timid  and  despairing  are 
led  to  say,  "We  never  saw  it  on  this  fashion." 
The  verifiable  results  of  such  a  practice  upon 
health,  upon  mental  adequacy,  upon  character, 
delicate  and  imperceptible  though  they  seem 
at  first,  are  increasingly  registered  upon  the 
life  within  until  they  utter  themselves  in  an 
enlarged  and  well-grounded  eflBciency  for  all 
life's  tasks.  This  is  what  the  singer  said;  he 
was  aware  of  the  fact  that  life  would  not  be  all 
green  pastures  and  still  waters;  he  might  be 
compelled  to  walk  through  the  valley  of  many 
a  shadow,  but,  come  what  might,  still  he  would 
not  fear  nor  be  afraid.  The  man  whose  inmost 
soul  is  filled  with  and  possessed  by  such 
thoughts  finds  himself  strongly  fortified  against 
Itiie  encroachment  of  disease. 


n 


[182] 


Cl^e  (Bo^ptl  of  (0ooti  l^ealtl^ 

In  the  next  place,  cherish  high  expectations 
as  the  fundamental  choice  of  your  deepest  and 
best  self  —  "  According  to  your  faith  be  it  unto 
you."  The  language  of  scripture  is  almost 
always  the  language  of  great  expectation,  the 
only  condition  put  upon  it  being  the  measure 
of  human  receptivity.  "  Open  thy  mouth  wide, 
and  I  will  fill  it";  there  is  no  lack  of  material 
with  the  Lord.  "Prove  me  now  herewith, 
saith  the  Lord;  make  your  consecration  com- 
plete, and  see  if  I  will  not  open  the  windows 
of  heaven  and  pour  you  out  such  a  blessing 
that  there  shall  not  be  room  enough  to  receive 
it."  "Stand  up  straight,  the  ceiling  is  high," 
you  will  not  bump  your  head !  According  to 
your  faith,  your  openness,  your  willingness, 
your  capacity,  be  it  unto  you  !  There  is  nothing 
shadowy  or  unreal  about  it;  men  do  become 
very  largely  what  they  expect  to  become  in 
that  hidden  faith  which  does  not  always  utter 
itself  in  formal  creeds,  but  shows  itself  in 
shaping  those  persistent  aspirations  which  con- 
trol the  life.  Include  within  the  firm  grip  of 
your  anticipation  this  physical  nature,  covet- 
[183] 


mt^  ann  i^eaiti^ 


ing  for  it  earnestly  the  best  there  is,  and  accord- 
ing to  your  faith  be  it  unto  you  ! 

The  people  who  are  continually  expecting  to 
catch  all  the  diseases  that  are  going,  rarely 
fail ;  they  usually  catch  them  all.  The  people 
who  live  in  perpetual  fear  and  dread  and  appre- 
hension almost  always  realize,  not  their  worst 
fears  entire  —  that  would  be  expecting  too 
much  —  but  a  good  working  percentage  of 
them.  According  to  their  expectation  it  is 
gradually  wrought  out  for  them  in  actual  ex- 
perience. 
I  On  the  other  hand,  the  quiet,  serene  con- 
jfidence  of  the  intelligent  physician,  of  the 
trained  nurse,  or  of  the  well-poised  individual 
in  ordinary  life,  is  like  a  steel  armor  against 
the  attacks  of  disease,  as  each  one  goes  cour- 
ageously about  his  business.  According  to 
their  faith  it  is  unto  them,  and  the  result  is 
vastly  different.  If  every  one  could  form  the 
habit  of  going  about  with  those  same  familiar 
words  from  the  Twenty-third  Psalm  on  his 
lips,  in  his  mind,  deeply  embedded  in  his 
heart,  "I  will  fear  no  evil,  for  Thou  art 
[184] 


Cl^e  (0Dj8pel  of  dD^ooD  i^ealtl^ 

with  me !  I  will  fear  no  evil,  for  Thou  art  with 
me!"  — I  do  not  say  it  would  enable  him  to 
lie  down  with  rattlesnakes  or  to  drink  water 
out  of  a  malarial  swamp  unhurt,  but  it  would 

jadd  to  his  prospects  for  good  health,  in  some 
cases  thirty,  in  some  sixty,  and  in  some  a 
hundred  fold.  Pitch  your  expectation  high; 
look  for  the  best,  hope  for  the  best,  strive  for 

,  the  best,  and  according  to  your  faith  be  it  unto 

I  you! 

In  the  third  place,  it  will  be  advantageous 
to  maintain  a  firm  resolution  as  the  uncompro- 
mising attitude  of  your  will;  "O  woman, 
great  is  thy  faith!  be  it  unto  thee  even  as  thou 
wilt!"  Here  was  a  mother  whose  daughter 
was  aflflicted  with  one  of  those  nervous  mal- 
adies —  epilepsy  we  call  it  now  —  which  often 
baffle  the  skill  of  our  best  physicians  to  this 
hour.  It  seemed  to  the  people  of  that  day, 
untrained  in  scientific  diagnosis,  as  they  saw 
the  daughter  writhing  in  her  distress,  that  she 
was  "grievously  tormented  with  a  devil."  The 
best  account  of  the  matter  they  knew  how  to 

give  was  to  the  effect  that  the  nature  of  the 
[185] 


f  aiti^  anU  i^ealti^ 


child   had   been   overborne   by   some   hostile, 
malicious  personality  resident  within. 

The  woman  was  an  outsider,  a  Canaanite, 
but  she  came  boldly  to  Christ,  saying,  "Thou 
Son  of  David,  have  mercy  on  me."  She  was 
not  only  a  heathen,  she  was  noisy  and  incon- 
siderate. The  disciples  said,  "  Send  her  away," 
but  she  only  cried  the  more  earnestly  to  Christ. 
Then  Jesus  said  to  her  gently,  "I  am  sent  to 
the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel."  Still  she 
was  not  repulsed ;  she  said,  "  Lord,  help  me." 
But  Jesus  said,  further  testing  her  resolution, 
"  It  is  not  meet  to  take  the  children's  bread  and 
give  it  to  the  dogs."  And  the  woman  re- 
plied, in  effect,  "Yea,  Lord,  the  dogs  eat  the 
crumbs  which  fall  from  their  master's  table; 
give  me  a  crumb  of  divine  help."  Her  deter- 
mination leaped  all  the  barriers  of  race  and 
distance,  all  the  obstacles  which  a  chronic  and 
painful  illness  interposed !  And  Jesus  said  to 
her,  "  O  woman,  great  is  thy  faith !  be  it 
unto  thee  even  as  thou  wilt!"  Faith  express- 
ing itself  in  determination  won  the  day;  her 

daughter  was  healed  from  that  hour ! 
[186] 


Ci^e  dD^OjSpel  of  (13ooD  l^ealt^ 

If  you  will  stand  up,  your  mind  and  heart 
made  right  with  God  to  the  fullest  extent  you 
know,  and  in  God's  name  say,  "Let  there  be 
health,"  and  keep  on  saying  it  resolutely,  trust- 
fully, hopefully,  that  very  action  of  your  inner 
life  will  work  wonders.  I  do  not  say  that  no 
disease  can  stand  before  you,  for  you  are  not 
omnipotent,  but  I  do  say  that  you  will  set  in 
operation  one  of  the  great  healing  forces  of 
the  world. 

All  about  us  there  are  people  who  have 
stopped  talking  about  their  ills,  stopped  think- 
ing about  them,  stopped  pitying  themselves, 
who  are  saying  in  the  way  indicated,  "Let 
there  be  health,"  and  there  is  health !  It  is 
done  unto  them  at  last  even  as  they  will. 
When  people  fix  their  eyes  on  something  high, 
fine,  useful,  linking  their  determination  with 
the  purpose  of  God  for  them,  and  say  bravely 
and  steadily.  We  will !  we  will !  we  will !  they 
are  putting  themselves  in  a  position  to  come 
oflF  more  than  conquerors  through  Him  who 
loves  us. 

I  have  tried  to  obey  the  injunction,  "Phy- 
[187] 


jfait]^  anb  i^ealtl^ 


sician,  heal  thyself,"  in  this  matter  and  I  feel 
that  I  have  earned  some  right  to  speak.  I 
have  never  been  privileged  to  stand  in  that 
class  graphically  described  by  Ian  Maclaren, 
"People  so  brutally  and  oflFensively  healthy  as 
to  feel  no  true  sympathy  for  those  who  are 
fighting  for  their  very  lives."  Many  of  my 
earlier  years  were  years  of  physical  struggle. 
But  some  twenty  years  ago  I  learned  better 
how  to  fight.  I  gained  some  new  weapons; 
I  began  to  practice  a  different  formation,  and 
this  has  meant  a  long  series  of  victories. 

It  is  twenty  years  ago  this  winter  since  we 
first  began  to  hear  people  discuss  the  grippe, 
which  had  then  become  epidemic  under  that 
title.  If  I  could  recall  all  that  I  have  heard 
about  that  malady  related  by  those  who  were 
temporarily  suffering  from  it,  I  could  write  a 
natural  history  of  the  grippe,  giving  all  the 
symptoms  in  order  and  rehearsing  all  the  un- 
happy results  of  it.  This  endless  discoursing 
upon  it  was  not  beneficial  to  those  who  made 
the  painful  recitals;  it  is  never  wise  to  talk 
without  a  purpose,  and  unless  one  is  talking 
[188] 


Ci^e  (I5o0pel  of  (0OOD  J^ealtl^ 

to  his  physician,  or  his  nurse,  or  his  pastor,  or 
some  member  of  his  family  about  his  ills  with 
a  definite  end  in  view,  he  had  better  not  talk 
about  them  at  all. 

But  with  all  the  cases  I  have  visited  in  my 
parish  work,  and  with  all  the  discussions  to 
which  I  have'  listened,  I  have  never  had  the 
grippe  myself;  I  never  expect  to  have  it,  and 
I  do  not  rap  wood  when  I  say  so,  for  there  is 
nothing  of  magic  in  it.  Some  honest  attention 
to  God's  laws  of  health,  which  are  as  sacred 
as  the  Ten  Commandments;  some  ability  to 
cherish  right  thoughts  and  maintain  a  serene 
confidence  and  some  power  of  resolution  have 
been  sufl&cient  thus  far  to  safeguard  me  from 
any  inroad  of  that  particular  malady.  Insist 
on  being  well;  go  to  bed  with  that  idea  and 
get  up  with  it;  carry  it  about  with  you  as  you 
carry  your  own  face  and  hands  about  with 
you,  and  somehow  you  are  apt  to  find  that 
it  is  unto  you  even  as  you  will ! 

With  all  this,  cherish  a  personal  and  vital 
faith  in  God  as  the  Supreme  Friend  and  Helper 
of  all  our  lives !  "  Have  faith  in  God,"  Jesus 
[189] 


mtf^  and  l^ealti^ 


said  to  His  trembling  disciples,  and  although  He 
sent  them  forth  with  neither  purse  nor  scrip, 
they  found  in  this  new  and  high  confidence 
in  which  He  had  established  them  an  abiding 
source  of  personal  reinforcement  and  an  ample 
furnishing  for  a  widely  beneficent  service. 

In  a  certain  eastern  city  there  is  a  hospital 
with  that  suggestive  inscription  over  the  main 
entrance.  The  building  is  brick,  but  set  in  the 
front  of  it  is  a  broad  marble  slab,  and  on  it  in 
letters  of  gold  are  these  plain  words,  "Have 
Faith  in  God."  It  is  a  Christian  hospital,  as 
one  would  naturally  suppose.  Hundreds  of 
sufferers,  borne  thither  in  the  ambulance  or 
assisted  up  the  walk  by  loving  friends,  have 
looked  up  at  those  words  as  they  passed  in  at 
the  door.  We  may  be  sure  the  words  have 
given  an  added  courage  to  many  an  anxious 
heart.  Hundreds  of  sufferers  have  there  been 
cured  as  human  intelligence  and  human  love 
have  co-operated  with  those  healing  forces 
which  are  altogether  divine.  As  they  walk 
away,  rejoicing  in  health  regained,  perhaps  they 
looked  back  at  those  words  of  gold,  and  were 
[190] 


Ci^e  (^o^ptl  of  d^ooD  l^ealtl^ 

made  by  the  message  they  conveyed  more 
deeply  grateful  to  Him  who  had  wrought  with 
His  chosen  servants  for  their  recovery.  "Have 
faith  in  God  " ;  they  are  good  words  to  have 
engraved  upon  a  building  devoted  to  healing, 
or  upon  the  walls  of  one's  home,  or  deeply  em- 
bedded within  one's  heart !  They  point  ever 
to  a  sure  source  of  inexhaustible  help. 

We  have  often  been  afraid  to  aim  boldly 
for  that  simple,  original,  spiritual  potency  of 
early  Christianity  which  in  the  days  of  the 
apostles  healed  the  sick  at  the  same  time  that 
it  was  saving  the  soul  from  sin.  Even  if  we 
tried  and  failed,  it  would  do  us  good  to  aim 
high.  But  under  the  blind  leadership  of  cer- 
tain fanatics,  many  people  have  been  led  to 
feel  that  if  they  undertook  to  exercise  faith  in 
God's  power  to  heal  directly,  they  were  es- 
topped from  using  any  material  remedies. 
This  is  the  sheerest  nonsense.  The  Almighty 
is  not  so  touchy  as  to  withhold  His  spiritual  aid, 
because  the  patient  is  also  using  some  materia! 
remedy  which  He  himself  expressly  created  for 
the  use  of  His  children.  Those  narrow-minded 
[191] 


faitl^  anti  f  ealti^ 


people  ought  not  to  think  that  God  is  another 
such  a  one  as  themselves ! 

But,  we  are  told  with  an  air  of  finality,  there 
is  no  record  that  Jesus  ever  used  drugs.  That 
is  true  —  there  is  no  record  that  He  ever  did. 
There  is  no  record  that  He  ever  used  an  elevator 
or  a  telephone,  or  that  he  availed  himself  of 
the  help  of  electricity  in  any  of  its  many  forms 
now  become  familiar  through  modern  science. 
But  he  would  be  a  foolish  man  who  would  in- 
sist to-day  upon  climbing  the  stairs  to  the  top 
of  a  high  building  or  upon  doing  all  his  errands 
on  foot  because  Jesus  never  used  the  many 
contrivances  which  now  serve  our  needs. 
Sometimes  a  drug  which  God  made  and  which 
men  have  learned  to  use  will  accomplish  a 
certain  result  more  easily  and  more  quickly 
than  it  could  be  accomplished  (if,  indeed,  it 
could  be  accomplished  at  all)  by  purely  mental 
and  spiritual  forces.  He  would  be  a  foolish  man 
indeed  who  would  lightly  decline  its  help. 

And  the  very  people  who  declaim  so  loudly 
against  the  use  of  drugs  in  time  of  sickness,  all 
use  soap.  Soap  is  a  drug;  it  is  sold  at  the 
[192] 


Cl^e  d^ojKJpel  of  c0ooD  i^ealti^ 

drugstores;  its  action  is  chemical.  K  a  person 
were  furnished  with  plenty  of  hot  water  and 
time  enough,  he  might  wash  his  hands,  his 
face,  or  his  clothing  clean  without  soap,  but  it 
can  be  done  more  quickly  and  easily  with 
soap;  and  for  that  reason  all  sensible  people 
use  this  drug  we  call  soap.  The  very  people 
who  become  so  agitated  over  the  use  of  drugs 
in  healing  disease  constantly  use  soap  without 
realizing,  apparently,  how  very  funny  they  are 
making  themselves  by  their  inconsistency. 

Have  faith,  then,  in  God,  with  no  fear  what-r 
soever  that  you  are  discrediting  your  faith  in] 
Him  by  employing  all  those  useful  aids  which 
He  has  created  and  appointed  for  our  benefit ! 
Have  faith  in  God,  and  gather  to  yourself  all 
the  mighty  aid  which  you  can  claim  out  of 
the  Unseen  for  your  perfect  restoration ! 

The  divine  readiness  to  aid  us  along  phy- 
sical lines  reaches  farther  than  many  people 
dream.  In  certain  quarters  those  wild  and 
extravagant  guesses  which  always  precede  sober 
investigation    and    verifiable    knowledge    are 

being  made,  and  they  frequently  repel  the  more 
[193] 


mtf^  and  "^tam 


discriminating  minds  in  the  community.  But 
astronomy  was  not  first  —  astrology  was  first, 
the  awe,  the  wonder  and  the  interest  of  men  in 
the  stars  leading  to  all  manner  of  fanciful 
claims.  This  gradually  gave  place  to  an  exact 
science  which  now  maps  out  the  courses  the 
planets  take,  measures  the  distances  of  the 
stars  from  each  other  and  from  us,  weighs  their 
huge  bulk,  and  by  its  spectrum  analysis  deter- 
mines even  the  fuel  they  burn.  Chemistry  was 
not  first  —  alchemy  was  first  with  its  wild 
attempts  to  transmute  the  baser  metals  into 
precious  gold  and  to  work  all  kinds  of  magic. 
It  pointed  the  way  for  the  coming  of  that  exact 
science  which  to-day  lays  whole  communities 
under  obligation  to  it,  as  it  works  out  valued 
results  in  manufacture  and  in  agriculture,  in 
the  treatment  of  disease,  and  in  those  sanitary 
measures  which  safeguard  the  health  of  the 
community. 

In  similar  fashion  those  movements  called 

"Christian  Science,"  or  "New  Thought,"  are 

the  astrology  and  the  alchemy  of  modern  life, 

pointing  the  attention  of  the  world  in  a  direc- 

[194] 


Cl^e  (ia»oj3pel  of  (0ODti  i^ealti^ 

tion  where  useful  investigation  will  presently 
discover  values  unsuspected  as  yet.  We  are 
not  to  be  deceived  nor  repelled  by  the  wild 
guesses  or  the  extravagant  claims  made.  We 
are  not  to  take  leave  of  our  senses,  nor  to  make 
assertions  which  were  not  true  in  the  begin- 
ning, are  not  true  now,  and  never  will  be  true, 
world  without  end.  We  are  to  separate  the 
wheat  from  the  chafiF  and  then  sow  it  in  the 
good  soil  of  patient,  intelligent,  sympathetic 
effort,  where  it  will  bring  forth  in  some  cases 
thirty,  in  some  sixty,  and  in  some  a  hundred 
fold  of  increased  bodily  vigor. 

In  undertaking  to  use  these  mental  and 
spiritual  aids  for  the  gaining  and  maintenance 
of  sound  health,  we  shall  in  no  wise  advance 
the  cause  by  any  sort  of  pretence  or  make- 
believe.  We  have  all  heard  companies  of  well- 
fed,  well-dressed  people,  sitting  easily  on  cush- 
ioned seats,  behind  stained  glass  windows,  their 
minds  considerably  befogged  by  persistent  at- 
tempts to  believe  what  their  common  sense 
told  them  was  not  true,  utter  some  such  con- 
fession of  faith  as  this:  "There  is  no  reality 
[195] 


f  ai'tl^  anD  i^ealtl^ 


in  sin,  sickness,  disease,  poverty  or  death.  All 
is  God  and  all  is  good.  Everything  in  the  world 
is  just  lovely,  and  we  are  just  lovely,  too." 

It  is  the  most  economical  view  to  take  of  the 
matter.  If  there  is  no  such  thing  as  poverty 
or  sickness,  then,  of  course,  we  are  not  called 
upon  to  give  any  of  our  money  to  maintain 
homes,  hospitals,  relief  societies  or  associated 
charities.  But  it  is  untrue ;  it  is  a  "  false  claim" 
which  is  leading  scores  of  confused  and  undis- 
criminating  people  to  become  complacent,  self- 
centered,  self-satisfied,  morally  indifferent  to 
the  stern  needs  about  them.  Sin  is  a  fact; 
young  men  not  out  of  their  teens  take  pieces  of 
gas-pipe  and  beat  the  brains  out  of  helpless 
victims  in  order  to  rob  them.  Crime  is  a  fact; 
men  who  stand  erect  upon  two  feet,  but  in  all 
other  respects  show  themselves  lower  than  the 
four-footed  animals,  perpetrate  their  crimes 
against  the  honor  and  purity  of  young  woman- 
hood. Poverty  is  a  fact;  a  hard,  bitter,  un- 
yielding fact,  showing  itself  the  relentless  enemy 
of  the  bodily,  intellectual  and  moral  well- 
being  of  those  who  suffer  under  its  heel.  We 
[196] 


Ci^e  (Bo^ptl  of  (t^DoD  l^ealtl^ 

cannot  -scare  it  away  with  big,  unmeaning 
words,  or  by  any  silly  pretense  that  it  does  not 
exist.  It  can  only  be  relieved  by  generous,  in- 
telligent, persistent  service.  Disease  and  death 
are  perpetually  recurring  facts,  bringing  sor- 
row in  their  train  to  the  homes  of  those  who  hold 
the  fantastic  theories  as  well  as  to  those  who 
still  trust  the  evidence  of  their  five  senses.  We 
cannot  dispose  of  the  tribulation  of  the  world 
by  vague  talk  about  there  being  no  reality  to 
it.  There  must  be  a  fearless  facing  of  the 
facts  of  experience  as  they  are,  coupled  with  a 
reasonable  reliance  upon  those  forms  of  help 
which  have  often  been  neglected  because  they 
were  unseen. 

With  that  open-eyed  honesty,  then,  which 
shuns  nothing  and  hides  nothing,  take  these 
gospel  ingredients,  right  thoughts,  high  expec- 
tations, firm  resolution,  faith  in  God,  and  em- 
ploy them  in  the  interests  of  a  more  complete 
and  abiding  state  of  health.  Mix  them  to- 
gether, shake  them  well,  use  them  freely !  You 
need  not  measure  them  out  narrowly  with  a  drop 
tube  or  a  teaspoon;  there  is  nothing  in  them 
[197] 


mtt^  anD  l^ealti^ 


which  will  hurt  you;  take  as  much  of  them 
as  you  can  contain.  They  will  do  you  good 
and  only  good. 

They  are  not  offered,  wholesome  though 
they  are,  as  an  infallible  panacea  for  all  the 
ills  of  human  flesh.  We  cannot,  even  withj 
these  aids,  banish  all  suffering,  disease  and 
death.  One  whose  right  thoughts,  high  ex- 
pectations, firm  resolution  and  faith  in  God 
utterly  transcended  anything  we  can  expect  to 
attain  in  this  present  world,  suffered.  "He 
learned  obedience  by  the  things  that  he  suf- 
fered," the  Bible  says.  If  any  enthusiast  in 
His  presence  had  claimed  that  there  was  "no 
reality  in  sin,  sickness,  disease  or  death,"  He 
would  have  regarded  such  a  one  as  not  alto- 
gether in  his  right  mind.  When  wicked  men 
drove  nails  through  His  feet  and  hands,  and 
when  they  pierced  His  side  with  a  spear,  Hel 
suffered  and  died.  -"^ 

In  like  manner,  if  any  one  is  overtaken  by 

cruel   accident,    or   loaded   down    with   more 

work  and  care  and  necessary  anxiety  than  he 

has  strength  to  bear,  he  will  suffer  and  it  may 

[198] 


Ci^e  (^o^ptl  of  (1500D  J^ealtl^ 

be  he  will  incur  some  painful  illness.  And  the 
time  will  come  when  we  shall  all  suffer  and 
die.  When  we  have  done  our  best,  living  under 
present  conditions,  in  crowded  cities,  with  the 
water  and  food  supply  often  contaminated,  with 
the  air  we  breathe  becoming  sometimes  the 
agent  of  disease  rather  than  of  health,  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  sickness  is  inevitable.  Reduce 
the  volume  of  it  by  wise  sanitation  and  by  tak- 
ing all  personal  precautions  possible,  a  certain 
percentage  of  people  will  yet  be  ill  at  some 
time  during  the  year. 

And  even  that  which  is  best  in  us  sometimes 
becomes  the  occasion  of  a  depleted  vitality. 
The  father's  unselfish  ambition  for  the  well- 
being  of  his  children,  for  their  education,  or 
their  social  standing,  coupled  with  his  desire 
to  start  them  in  life  on  a  better  footing  than 
that  which  he  enjoyed,  carries  him  into  an 
amount  of  overwork  which  means  a  break- 
down. And  many  a  mother  suffers  from  drag- 
ging ill-health  because  she  gave  so  freely  from 
her  own  store  of  vitality  to  her  children.  And 
the  sjrmpathetic  nature  of  many  another,  in 
[199] 


^fatti^  and  l^ealtl^ 


the  face  of  the  struggles  of  those  who  are  dear, 
yields  itself  so  unreservedly  to  them  as  to 
lower  its  own  life  forces.  Do  our  best,  it  still 
remains  true  that  a  considerable  section  of  the 
whole  creation  groans  and  travails  in  physical 
pain  at  some  time  during  its  career. 

There  are  offsets  and  compensations  stand- 
ing over  against  all  such  unavoidable  ills. 
If  you  had  eyes  to  see,  ears  to  hear,  and  a  heart 
to  understand,  you  got  something  of  great 
value  out  of  your  last  illness.  It  did  not  simply 
bring  you  the  customary  feeling  of  resentment 
coupled  with  a  huge  doctor's  bill,  it  did  not 
let  you  go  until  it  had  blessed  you.  It  brought 
you  what  the  Psalmist  pictured,  an  enlargement 
and  enrichment  of  being  — "  Thou  hast  en- 
larged me  when  I  was  in  distress." 

When  any  one  is  called  to  lie  upon  a  bed  of 
pain  for  many  months,  or  to  spend  tiresome 
weeks  in  a  hospital  or  to  lie  awake  through 
lonely  nights  and  hear  the  clock  strike  the 
weary  hours  when  sleep  is  denied,  he  may,  if 
he  will,  transmute  all  this  into  higher  qualities 
of  mind  and  heart.  He  may  come  to  the  point 
[200] 


Ci^e  (5o^ptl  of  (0OOD  i^ealtl^ 

where  his  sympathies  go  out  as  they  never  did 
before  to  the  whole  army  of  patient  sufferers; 
he  may  learn  to  think  with  an  added  tenderness 
of  those  who  in  their  time  of  pain  lack  the 
comfort  and  alleviation  he  enjoys;  he  may 
enter  into  a  new  appreciation  of  the  faithful, 
unselfish  heroism  of  the  poor  who  aid  each 
other  in  their  times  of  trial;  he  may  so  pass 
through  that  period  of  distress  as  to  be  enlarged 
in  his  whole  attitude  toward  the  ills  of  the 
world. 

When  we  go  along  prosperously  and  joy- 
ously, able  to  eat  three  meals  a  day  and  sleep 
eight  hours  every  night,  able  to  take  the  car 
for  the  place  of  business  at  the  usual  hour 
each  morning  with  never  an  interruption,  and 
able  to  do  our  full  share  of  the  world's  work, 
rejoicing  in  the  chance  to  do  it,  we  may  begin 
to  fancy  that  this  flesh  which  walls  about  our 
life  is  brass  impregnable.  We  may  grow  cal- 
lous and  careless  touching  those  lives  which 
are  struggling  against  heavier  odds  than  ours, 
those  lives  which  sometimes  go  down  for  a 
month  or  two  in  physical  defeat.  If  any  man's 
[201] 


fait)^  anD  l^ealti^ 


heart  is  becoming  small,  tight  and  hard  by 
this  round  and  round  of  pleasant  experiences, 
it  may  be  that  there  is  no  other  way  for  his 
sympathies  to  be  brought  back  to  a  more  abun- 
dant life  than  for  him  to  travel  the  way  of 
pain  and  distress  himself.  Whether  this  is 
the  only  way  or  not,  it  is  one  way;  many  a 
man  comes  through  such  an  ordeal  to  walk  a 
bit  more  slowly  for  the  rest  of  his  days  but  with 
new  sympathy  for  all  his  fellows.  When  he 
looks  down  into  his  own  heart  he  says  with  pro- 
found gratitude,  "  The  Lord  enlarged  me  when 
I  was  in  distress." 

But  having  made  room  for  that  illness  which 
is  apparently  unavoidable,  and  having  indicated 
a  certain  high  office  it  may  perform  in  moral 
growth,  I  would  again  strongly  insist  that  it  is 
not  only  the  part  of  expediency  but  morally  im- 
perative for  every  one  to  do  all  that  lies  in  his 
power  to  be  well,  steadily  and  joyously  well. 
It  is  part  of  our  Christian  duty  to  so  obey 
God's  laws  of  health,  which  are  as  sacred  as  if 
he  had  actually  spoken  them  aloud  from  Sinai, 
to  so  order  our  habits  with  reference  to  the 
[202] 


Ci^e  (Bo^ptl  of  dDJooD  i^ealti^ 

maintenance  of  a  high  degree  of  effectiveness, 
to  so  utilize  all  means,  material  and  spiritual, 
which  make  for  soundness,  that  we  shall  be  up 
to  the  mark  in  physical  health. 

The  location  of  that  tree  of  life,  whose  leaves 
were  for  the  healing  of  the  nations,  is  signifi- 
cant, —  it  stood  "  in  the  midst  of  the  street." 
It  grew  and  flourished,  offering  its  gracious 
and  accessible  ministry  right  there  in  the  very 
center  of  a  city  whose  walls  were  great  and 
high.  The  tree  of  healing  was  not  remote 
from  the  common  life,  only  to  be  found  in 
some  far-away  garden  to  which  none  but  the 
privileged  might  go.  It  was  not  shut  away  in 
some  sacredly  guarded  enclosure  where  only 
the  chosen  few  were  admitted.  It  grew  in  the 
middle  of  the  street,  easily  accessible  to  all, 
a  part  of  the  common,  daily  environment. 

Busy  men  and  women  do  not  need  to  make 
long  pilgrimages  to  some  distant  shrine;  they 
need  not  go  apart  into  some  mystical,  occult 
sect;  they  are  not  required  to  use  prescribed 
formulas  of  speech,  which  no  one  quite  un- 
derstands, in  order  to  avail  themselves  of  this 
[203] 


f  atti^  anD  f  ealtl^ 


help.  Right  here,  where  we  are  now  carrying 
on  the  work  of  ordinary  Ufe,  where  we  are  now 
using  our  common  sense  in  our  daily  duties,  we 
find  this  splendid  tree  with  healing  in  its  very 
leaves,  growing  in  the  middle  of  the  crowded 
street. 

If  any  one  will  take  those  leaves  and  use 
them  habitually  it  will  be  good  for  the  body 
and  good  as  well  for  the  soul.  Indeed,  he 
cannot  use  them  with  the  highest  effectiveness 
until  his  moral  purposes  are  altogether  right. 
The  fact  that  God  is  a  Being  of  holy  love  makes 
it  plain  that  His  total  helpfulness  can  only  be 
secured  where  there  is  a  spirit  of  holy  love 
to  invoke  and  receive  that  aid.  If  any  man, 
therefore,  will  undertake  to  rightly  use  the 
leaves  of  the  tree  for  the  healing  of  his  bodily 
ills,  he  will  in  that  very  effort  be  led  to  eat  also 
of  the  fruit  of  the  tree  which  will  give  him  life 
everlasting. 


[204] 


Ci^e  Ci^urc^  anD  ©(jseaise 


VII 


€]^e  Ci^urci^  anD  ©fiseajse 


HE  New  Testament  does  not 
speak  about  "saving  souls" 
after  the  manner  of  some.  It 
recognizes  the  fact  that  all 
the  souls  we  know  anything 
about  have  the  cheerful  habit  of  living  in 
bodies.  It  therefore  speaks  always  of  saving 
men.  "The  Son  of  Man  is  come  not  to  de- 
stroy men's  lives,  but  to  save  them" — in 
their  entirety.  "The  Son  of  Man  is  come  to 
seek  and  to  save  that  which  is  lost"  — health, 
peace,  purity,  happiness,  whatever  has  been 
lost  out  of  the  life  and  therefore  needs  to  be 
restored. 

The  leading  apostle  of  the  Christian  faith 
expressed  his  purpose  habitually  in  such 
terms  as  these:  "I  pray  God  that  your 
whole  spirit,  soul  and  body,  may  be  preserved 
blameless  unto  the  coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus 

Christ."     "I  beseech  you,  therefore,  by  the 
[207] 


mtf^  and  fealti^ 


mercies  of  God,  that  ye  present  your  bodies 
a  living" — not  a  dying  or  a  diseased,  if  it 
lies  within  your  power  to  avert  it  —  "a  living 
sacrifice,  holy  and  acceptable  unto  God,  which 
is  your  reasonable  service."  And  in  one  of 
the  letters  accredited  to  the  beloved  disciple, 
we  find  the  good  wishes  of  the  writer  expressed 
in  this  cordial  and  inclusive  fashion :  "  I  wish 
above  all  things  that  thou  mayest  prosper 
and  be  in  health,  even  as  thy  soul  prospereth." 
He  desired  that  the  material  and  physical 
well-being  of  his  friend  might  be  commensurate 
with  his  moral  and  spiritual  advance. 

Now,  it  is  for  the  church,  standing  as  the 
leader  and  exponent  of  this  unfolding  Chris- 
tian civilization,  to  face  this  larger  responsi- 
bility, this  wider  opportunity.  In  these  days 
society  is  demanding  a  fuller  and  more  vital 
application  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  than  the 
one  which  satisfied  certain  other  generations. 
The  souls  of  men  caught  in  the  grip  of  some 
vicious  habit  —  it  may  be  mental,  certain 
fixed  ideas,  fears,  obsessions,  despondencies; 

it  may  be  physical,  the  use  of  some  drug  or 
[208] 


stimulant  or  other  indulgence  which  makes 
against  sound  health;  it  may  be  moral,  a 
tendency  or  a  disposition  in  the  presence  of 
which  the  will  has  gone  lame  —  the  souls  of 
men  caught  in  the  grip  of  some  vicious  habit 
are  crying  out  for  deliverance.  And  it  is  for 
organized  religion  in  such  ways  as  may  be 
wise  to  make  some  effective  response  to  this 
widespread  appeal. 

In  the  preceding  chapters  I  have  had  occa- 
sion to  speak  of  several  phases  of  this  popular 
interest  and  this  insistent  demand.  I  have 
spoken  sometimes  in  hearty  approval  and 
sometimes  in  radical,  though  I  trust  not  un- 
just or  unkindly,  criticism.  In  this  last  chapter 
I  wish  to  ask  what  should  be  the  general  atti- 
tude of  the  Christian  church  toward  the  whole 
great  problem  of  physical  disease.  That  it 
should  be  one  of  intelligent  and  loving  sym- 
pathy goes  without  saying;  the  Christian 
church  or  the  Christian  man  lacking  that 
high  quality  is  not  worthy  to  be  called  Chris- 
tian. But  in  its  concrete  efforts  what  should 
the  church  do  for  the  health  of  the  community  ? 
[209] 


iJfaiti^  anD  1$talt^ 


It  can  aid  mightily  by  helping  to  safeguard 
the  health  of  the  community  from  the  inroads 
of  disease.  We  live  in  a  land  ruled  by  public 
opinion.  This  public  opinion  finds  expres- 
sion to  some  extent  in  law,  but  still  more  in 
the  habits  and  customs  of  the  people.  Where 
this  public  opinion  is  intelligent,  resolute  and 
conscientious  it  becomes  a  tremendous  power 
for  good.  The  church  can  aid  in  forming  that 
body  of  opinion  which  is  the  uncrowned  king 
in  our  land.  It  speaks  from  its  pulpits  on 
every  Sabbath  in  the  year;  it  lays  its  message 
through  its  papers,  magazines  and  books 
before  the  eyes  of  thoughtful  people  every 
week;  and  in  its  various  schools  it  utters  its 
word  to  the  growing  minds  of  the  children  and 
the  youth  of  the  land  throughout  the  year. 
Now  if  its  main  utterance  has  to  do  not  simply 
with  the  forms  and  ceremonies  of  worship, 
and  not  simply  with  the  doctrines  contained  in 
the  creed  or  with  those  benevolent  and  mis- 
sionary enterprises  in  which  it  is  directly  en- 
gaged, but  also  with  the  housing  of  the  people 
in  sanitary  tenements,  with  the  making  of  the 
[210] 


conditions  of  employment  in  factories  and 
mines  safe  and  healthful,  not  dangerous  and 
deadly,  with  the  instruction  of  the  children  in 
those  habits  of  life  which  will  be  for  their 
physical  as  well  as  for  their  moral  soundness  — 
in  a  word,  if  the  church  speaks  habitually  of 
all  the  more  vital  interests  which  belong  to 
well-being,  then  you  can  see  that  it  may 
sustain  a  most  helpful  relation  to  the  public 
health. 

Take  that  matter  of  sanitary  tenements !  In 
the  city  of  Glasgow  a  few  years  ago  it  was 
found  that  the  death  rate  in  a  certain  quarter 
was  altogether  too  high.  When  the  fact  had 
been  ascertained  by  competent  investigation 
that  the  high  death  rate  was  due  to  unsanitary 
housing,  there  was  an  outcry  from  the  churches, 
from  the  board  of  health  and  from  some  of 
the  daily  papers.  And  at  last  the  municipal 
authorities  were  induced  to  demolish  those 
houses  at  public  expense  and  to  build  sanitary 
tenements.  As  a  result  of  that  one  act  the 
death  rate  in  that  district  went  down  from 

fifty-five  per  thousand  to  fourteen 
[211] 


fam  anti  J^ealtl^ 


It  is  for  the  church  to  urge  upon  all  its 
members  the  duty  of  interesting  themselves 
actively  in  that  important  concern.  It  was  a 
terrible  scandal  upon  the  cause  of  Christ  a 
few  years  ago  when  it  was  brought  out  that 
Trinity  Church,  New  York,  owned,  main- 
tained and  derived  a  handsome  revenue  from 
certain  tenements  in  which  human  beings 
should  not  have  been  permitted  to  live.  That 
mighty  church,  the  wealthiest  in  the  land, 
was  assailed  in  words  that  stung,  and  it  ought 
to  have  been  assailed.  It  is  a  terrible  scandal 
when  Christian  people  worshiping  God  in 
the  beauty  of  holiness  own  and  rent  houses 
which  are  plainly  unsanitary.  Murder  is 
murder,  whether  the  one  responsible  for  it 
kills  his  man  with  an  axe  in  five  minutes  or 
with  an  unsanitary  tenement  in  five  years. 
The  One  who  said,  "Thou  shalt  not  kill," 
the  One  who  knows  the  secret  methods  of  all 
lives,  views  any  purpose  or  action  which  is 
hostile  to  the  life,  the  health  or  the  happiness 
of  another,  as  murderous.  It  is  for  the  church 
to  help  safeguard  the  health  of  the  people  by 
[212] 


aiding  in  this  movement  for  sanitary  tenements 
in  all  our  cities. 

Take  that  matter  of  the  war  now  being 
waged  against  tuberculosis,  the  Great  White 
Plague  of  modern  times.  Read  the  reports  of 
the  Anti-Tuberculosis  League  if  you  would 
know  what  a  scourge  it  has  become.  One 
hundred  thousand  people  in  the  United  States 
alone  die  from  it  every  year.  If  the  present 
death  rate  is  not  reduced  by  wise  measures, 
out  of  the  eighty  millions  of  people  constitut- 
ing our  present  population  ten  millions  of 
them  will  die  from  tuberculosis. 

The  germ  of  that  dread  disease  is  killed  by 

sunlight  and  lives  only  a  short  time  anjrwhere 

in  the  open  air,  but  it  will  live  for  months  in 

the  dark  places  in  the  house.     In  a  certain 

ward  near  the  Battery  in  New  York  fourteen 

times  as  many  people  per  thousand  died  last 

year  from  tuberculosis  as  in  a  ward  adjoining 

Central  Park.     It  takes  its  toll  from  the  rich 

but  it  takes  a  still  more  terrible  toll  from  the 

ill-fed,  ill-housed  poor.     The  church  can  ally 

itself  strongly  with  the  municipal  and  state 
[213] 


fattl^  and  J^ealti^ 


boards  of  health  in  spreading  intelligence, 
in  awakening  interest  and  in  stijffening  the 
public  will  to  fight  this  dread  disease.  It  is  a 
preventable  disease,  and  it  lies  within  the  power 
of  medical  science  backed  up  by  the  wise  and 
persistent  co-operation  of  the  people  to  prac- 
tically stamp  it  out.  The  church  of  Christ 
caring  for  the  bodies  as  well  as  for  the  souls 
of  the  people  should  show  itself  a  valiant 
leader  in  this  splendid  task.  The  individual 
standing  alone  finds  himself  oftentimes  help- 
less, but  the  aroused  community  becomes 
mighty  in  its  advance  against  that  disease. 

Take  the  matter  of  sickness  among  the  poor. 
Sickness  is  a  grievous  experience  anywhere, 
but  sickness  and  poverty  together  become  a 
terrible  combination.  Where  a  woman  or  a 
child  is  sick  in  a  tenement,  the  odors  and  the 
noises,  the  flies  and  the  crowds,  the  stifling 
heat  or  the  damp  cold,  all  make  illness  more 
distressing  and  recovery  more  difficult.  It  is 
an  accurate  and  a  most  pathetic  picture  which 
Robert  Hunter  paints  in  his  book  on  "  Poverty." 
He  himself  has  given  so  much  time  and  so 
[214] 


much  love  to  the  lower  East  Side  of  New  York, 
that  he  can  speak  as  one  having  authority  and 
not  as  a  scribe.  "In  the  home  of  the  rich  a 
child  lies  burning  up  with  fever,  but  the  whole 
night  through  doctors,  nurses  and  servants, 
with  a  thousand  appliances,  are  making  every 
effort  to  ease  and  comfort  that  little  life  and 
lift  it  back  to  health.  At  the  same  hour  in 
the  big  tenement  a  light  burns  the  whole  night 
through,  and  some  weary  workingman  with 
his  patient  wife  is  watching  every  movement 
and  listening  for  every  breath  of  a  hot  and 
restless  little  one.  At  daybreak  the  man 
must  go  to  his  work  to  earn  bread  for  them 
all.  He  kisses  the  feverish  lips,  it  may  be  for 
the  last  time  —  he  does  not  know,  but  all  day 
long  his  heart  is  heavy  and  anxious.  And 
through  the  day  that  mother  with  her  heart- 
strings wrung  by  anguish  carries  on  her  un- 
equal fight  against  disease." 

It  is  for  the  church  to  enlarge  the  scope  of 

its  benevolence  and  aid  in  providing  district 

nurses  in  all  the  poorer  parts  of  our  cities  to 

come  in  as  effective  allies  of  those  forces  which 

[215] 


f  atti^  and  i^ealti^ 


make  for  health.  It  is  a  work  which  ought  to 
be  done  at  pubHc  expense.  We  provide  police- 
men as  the  allies  of  the  people  in  their  fight 
against  crime  and  disorder ;  it  would  be  equally 
fitting  to  provide  district  nurses  to  aid  the  poorer 
people  in  their  heartbreaking  struggle  against 
the  ravages  of  disease.  In  the  meantime,  until 
public  opinion  shall  make  this  general  pro- 
vision for  the  needy  in  every  city,  the  strong 
church  might  well  have  a  district  nurse  on  its 
regular  staff  of  workers  that  it  might  the  better 
fulfill  its  duty  to  the  bodies  as  well  as  the  souls 
of  men. 

Take  that  matter  of  safeguarding  the  health 
of  the  children  by  wise  inspection  in  the  public 
schools !  In  my  own  city  we  have  a  "  De- 
partment of  Health  and  Sanitation"  under 
the  direction  of  a  physician  who  was  formerly 
at  the  head  of  the  State  Board  of  Health.  He 
found,  according  to  his  first  published  report, 
that  from  two  to  twenty  per  cent  of  the  chil- 
dren in  the  public  schools  were  defective. 
Enlarged  tonsils,  adenoids,  defective  nasal 
breathing,  decayed  teeth  affecting  mastication 
[216] 


and  the  assimilation  of  food,  astigmatism 
making  the  vision  imperfect  —  these  were 
samples  of  the  handicaps  under  which  many 
of  the  little  people  were  trying  to  do  their 
work.  When  the  lessons  were  not  learned  or 
when  there  was  disobedience  to  the  rules,  it 
did  not  always  mean  a  lack  of  interest  or  mental 
dullness ;  it  did  not  always  indicate  a  wayward 
disposition  on  the  part  of  the  boys  and  girls; 
the  apparent  fault  may  have  come  entirely 
from  physical  conditions  for  which  the  children 
were  not  responsible. 

It  is  for  public  sentiment  to  put  its 
strong  endorsement  upon  that  form  of  effort 
and  to  be  ready  with  the  necessary  funds  to 
support  it.  It  is  for  our  Christian  civilization 
to  stretch  forth  a  long,  strong,  loving  arm 
around  the  child  in  that  home  where  these  de- 
ficiencies might  be  overlooked  by  uninstructed 
and  over-burdened  fathers  and  mothers,  and 
thus  give  every  child  bom  into  the  world 
the  fullest  possible  chance  to  be,  to  do,  and 
to  grow. 

I  have  named  these  as  samples  of  the  lines 
[217] 


iJfait]^  anb  i^ealtl^ 


of  usefulness  which  lie  open  to  the  Christian 
church  in  the  eflFective  interest  it  may  show  in 
the  health  of  the  people.  The  church  can 
render  a  splendid  service  in  helping  to  inspire 
those  civic  and  communal  activities  which 
make  for  health.  The  One  who  said  from  the 
top  of  Mt.  Sinai,  "Six  days  shalt  thou  labor 
and  do  all  thy  work,  but  the  seventh  day  thou 
shalt  rest,  thou  and  thy  manservant  and  thy 
maidservant  as  well  as  thou,"  is  not  indifferent 
to  the  physical  well-being  of  the  people.  That 
august  command  was  uttered  quite  as  much 
for  the  bearing  it  would  have  upon  sound 
health  and  the  longer  continuance  of  physical 
efficiency  as  for  the  value  it  would  have  in 
promoting  a  spirit  of  reverence  and  of  moral 
aspiration. 

And  the  One  who  said  with  even  more 
touching  sympathy,  "Come  unto  me  all  ye 
that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden  and  I  will 
give  you  rest,"  felt  a  mighty  interest  in  the 
tired  muscles  and  the  fretted  nerves  as  well 
as  in  the  moral  natures  of  the  people.  And 
the  church  which  undertakes  to  worship  the 
[218] 


One  and  to  follow  the  Other  cannot  be  in- 
different to  these  vital  concerns.  It  ought  to 
be  possible  for  every  church,  because  of  the 
effective  interest  it  has  shown  in  the  total  well- 
being  of  the  people  and  because  of  the  way  it 
has  inspired  its  members  to  enter  upon  these 
useful  forms  of  activity,  to  say  to  the  commun- 
ity with  no  sort  of  affectation,  "  I  wish  that  thou 
mayest  prosper  and  be  in  health  even  as  thy 
soul  prospereth." 

In  the  second  place,  the  church  can  ally 
itself  with  those  forces  which  make  directly  for 
physical  soundness.  I  referred  to  the  fact  that 
the  death  rate  from  tuberculosis  in  a  ward  on 
the  lower  East  Side  of  New  York  was  fourteen 
times  as  great  as  in  a  ward  fronting  on  Central 
Park.  There  was,  of  course,  in  the  homes  in 
these  two  wards,  a  vast  difference  in  the  food 
and  the  clothing  of  the  people,  but  the  Park 
itself  with  its  open  spaces,  its  trees  and  its 
grass,  its  clear  sky  and  its  purer  air,  was  a 
means  of  health  and  a  means  of  grace.  Every 
park  and  every  playground  in  the  crowded 
city  is  ordained  of  God  to  aid  in  the  fulfillment 
[219] 


mt^  anD  J^ealti^ 


of  the  beneficent  purpose  expressed  in  that 
inspired  wish  for  our  good  health.  It  is  a 
narrow,  grudging  and  unchristian  attitude 
which  votes  against  appropriations  or  bonds 
to  provide  these  breathing  places,  these  gra- 
cious ministries  to  health  in  all  our  cities.  All 
honor  to  those  public-spirited  officials  who  are 
leading  the  way  in  the  work  of  extending 
the  park  systems  and  of  increasing  the  number 
of  playgrounds  for  the  boys  and  girls.  Future 
generations  will  rise  up  and  call  the  results 
which  they  accomplished  blessed. 

The  general  health  of  the  people  is  indeed 
one  of  the  main  assets  of  any  nation.  This 
fact  was  clearly  recognized  by  President 
Roosevelt  when  he  appointed  Professor  Irving 
Fisher  of  Yale  University,  the  head  of  the  De- 
partment of  Economics,  to  tabulate  facts  and 
statistics  and  to  make  a  competent  report  on 
our  national  vitality.  This  report  makes  any 
thoughtful  man  somber  and  then  causes  his 
heart  to  leap  within  him  as  he  thinks  of  the 
possibilities  there  suggested.  In  the  six- 
teenth century  in  Europe  the  average  length 
[220] 


of  life  was  between  sixteen  and  eighteen 
years  —  now  it  is  between  forty  and  fifty. 
The  rate  of  increase  in  the  average  length  of 
life  in  the  eighteenth  century,  when  hygienic 
and  sanitary  measures  were  little  understood, 
was  at  the  rate  of  four  years  per  century  — 
during  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
when  so  much  intelligent  attention  was  given 
to  these  matters,  the  rate  of  increase  became 
nine  years  to  the  century. 

In  the  seventeenth  century  in  London  the 
annual  death  rate  was  fifty  per  thousand  — 
now  it  is  fifteen.  The  city  of  Vienna  in  one 
hundred  years  has  reduced  her  death  rate 
from  sixty  to  twenty-three  by  wise  sanitation. 
In  Boston  the  death  rate  in  1700  was  thirty- 
four  per  thousand  —  now  it  is  nineteen.  In 
Sweden  where  they  have  the  Ling  system  and 
the  Swedish  movements  for  the  physical  train- 
ing of  children  in  the  public  schools  more 
highly  developed  than  in  any  country  in  the 
world,  we  find  that  the  average  length  of  life 
is  fifty  for  men  and  fifty-three  for  women  — 
the  highest  in  the  world.  In  India,  which  has 
[221] 


faitli  and  l^ealti^ 


the  least  of  all  this,  the  average  length  of  life 
is  twenty-three  for  men  and  twenty-four  for 
women.  In  the  Scandinavian  countries  the 
death  rate  is  thirteen  per  thousand,  while  in 
India  it  is  forty-two.  Make  all  necessary 
allowance  for  the  difiFerence  in  climate  in 
Sweden  and  in  India,  the  splendid  fact  still 
stands  that  physical  instruction  and  scientific 
sanitation  roll  up  a  magnificent  result  in  the 
health  and  physical  endurance  of  the  people. 

How  splendid  are  all  these  gains !  What  a 
saving  in  earning  power  as  well  as  in  the  avoid- 
ance of  the  gruesome  volume  of  personal  be- 
reavement where  women  are  being  widowed 
and  children  left  as  orphans  by  the  untimely 
deaths  of  their  natural  providers.  And  as 
a  result  of  his  investigations  as  an  economist, 
aided  by  the  boards  of  health  in  this  and  in 
other  countries,  it  is  the  sober  judgment  of 
Professor  Fisher  that  clean  streets,  clean  food, 
clean  water,  clean  milk  and  clean  air  would 
so  reduce  the  volume  of  preventable  disease 
as  to  result  in  the  saving  of  one  thousand  mil- 
lions of  dollars  annually  to  this  land  of  ours. 
[222] 


And  Dr.  Reid  of  Cincinnati,  basing  his 
estimate  upon  the  investigations  of  this  econ- 
omist, believes  that  by  following  the  perfectly 
feasible  suggestions  outlined  in  that  report, 
we  could  in  seven  years  save  enough  of  that 
avoidable  waste  in  human  life  reckoned  in 
terms  of  its  earning  power  and  in  the  potential 
earning  capacity  which  is  unnecessarily  cut 
ofiF  —  "  we  could  in  seven  years  save  enough  to 
pay  for  the  Panama  Canal,  duplicate  our  army 
and  navy,  double  our  merchant  marine, 
deepen  all  our  inland  waterways,  pay  oflf  the 
entire  national  debt  and  have  enough  left  to 
put  a  surplus  balance  in  the  treasury  of  five 
hundred  millions  of  dollars."  And  these  are 
the  figures  not  of  some  Fourth  of  July  orator 
or  of  some  sentimentalist,  but  of  a  trained 
economist  and  of  the  physicians  connected 
with  the  State  and  municipal  boards  of 
health ! 

I  have  stated  the  possible  saving  only  in 

terms  of  financial  gain  through  the  prevention 

of  avoidable  disease.     If  we  should  undertake 

to  state  the  possible  gain  in  general  well-being 

12231 


fatti^  anti  l^ealti^ 


by  the  avoidance  of  bereavement  and  by  the 
wiping  away  of  the  tears  from  the  many  eyes 
which  are  now  dimmed  because  of  the  untimely 
death  of  those  they  loved,  if  we  should  esti- 
mate the  beneficent  results  in  avoiding  that 
stern  struggle  to  which  many  women  and 
children  have  been  doomed  because  of  these 
unnecessary  deaths,  we  should  need  to  send 
out  for  some  professor  of  the  higher  mathe- 
matics who  understands  the  fourth  dimen- 
sion and  the  more  august  methods  of  notation 
in  order  to  be  able  to  read  off  the  final  figures 
as  to  the  resultant  gain  in  human  well  being. 

The  church  can  also  help  to  prevent  the 
depleting  of  the  best  resources  of  the  nation 
through  child  labor.  It  can  insist  that  men 
shall  not  be  doomed  to  work  in  unsanitary 
mines  or  factories;  competent  and  fearless 
Federal  inspection  backed  up  by  a  resolute 
public  opinion  can  prevent  all  that.  It  can 
see  to  it  that  prospective  or  nursing  mothers 
are  not  sent  into  the  mill  or  the  factory  to  stand 
all  day  at  the  looms  to  the  permanent  detri- 
ment of  two  generations  of  human  lives.  It 
[224] 


can  ally  itself  openly  and  actively  every  day 
in  the  week  with  all  those  agencies  and  move- 
ments which  have  to  do  with  physical  well- 
being  as  well  as  with  intelligence  and  good 
morals.  There  oiight  to  be  in  our  Christian 
civilization  "  a  gate  of  the  Temple  called 
Beautiful  "  where  Christian  sentiment  and 
Christian  energy  are  taking  the  lame  man 
by  the  hand  and  setting  him  on  his  feet.  It 
would  greatly  increase  the  number  of  those 
who  enter  into  the  temple,  "walking  and  leap- 
ing and  praising  God,"  if  the  church  should 
show  itself  more  active  in  its  interest  in  this 
present,  visible  and  everyday  life  of  the  people. 
The  church  has  also,  I  believe,  in  ways 
appropriate  a  perpetual  ministry  to  render  to 
the  health  of  the  individual.  It  would  take 
a  very  wise  man  to  determine  how  much  of 
the  present  volume  of  disease,  organic  and 
functional,  is  due  in  the  last  analysis  to  the 
rapid  increase  of  nen'ous  disorders.  The 
mad  rush  for  wealth,  the  overdone  social  life 
of  our  day,   the   restless   desire  for   change, 

the  pace  which  is  too  sharp  for  any  of  us  and 
[225] 


faitli  anD  i^ealti^ 


killing  for  thousands  of  us,  the  widespread 
use  of  stimulants  and  narcotics  in  alarming 
amounts  and  the  lack  of  self-control,  through 
overwork  perhaps,  —  all  these  serve  to  roll  up 
an  awful  array  of  nervous  disorders.  These 
disorders  in  turn  react  upon  all  the  vital 
processes  of  digestion,  assimilation,  circulation 
and  elimination  in  a  way  that  undermines  the 
health. 

We  have  a  growing  amount  of  hysteria  as 
seen  in  exaggerated  emotional  displays,  the 
morbid  desire  for  sympathy,  the  craving  for 
excitement  or  for  admiration,  and  the  uncon- 
scious simulation  of  certain  diseases  where 
the  symptoms  are  such  as  would  deceive  any 
one  except  an  expert  diagnostician.  We  have 
a  vast  amount  of  melancholy,  nervous  depres- 
sion, neurasthenia,  the  tendency  to  suicide 
and  moral  despondency.  Look  into  the  faces 
of  the  people  you  meet  on  the  busy  street 
when  they  are  unconscious  that  any  one  is 
observing  them !  In  what  a  discouraging 
percentage  of  them  do  you  find  an  absence  of 
that  good  cheer,  kindliness  and  hopefulness 
[226] 


which  ought  to  clothe  the  human  face,  except 
in  its  great  emergencies,  as  with  a  garment. 

Now  just  there  the  church  has  a  magnifi- 
cent opportunity.  If  it  never  took  a  pill  in  its 
hand  or  undertook  to  hold  any  sort  of  clinic, 
it  could  still  accomplish  a  mighty  work  in 
urging  upon  the  people  better  habits  of  life 
and  in  establishing  deep  within  their  hearts 
a  saner  and  a  sweeter  spirit.  It  is  for  the 
church  to  so  instruct  the  people  that  they  may 
have  poise  and  balance,  a  sense  of  proportion 
and  that  fine  quality  of  moderation.  It  is  for 
the  church  to  preach  and  to  practice  serenity, 
cheerfulness,  hopefulness.  It  is  for  the  church 
to  insist  upon  the  supremacy  of  the  spirit  and 
the  transcendent  value  of  those  interests  which 
are  altogether  beyond  the  reach  of  accident 
or  disease. 

The  church  can  also  interpret  the  meaning 
of  i?uffering,  so  that  the  burdened  and  the 
disappointed  people  will  not  feel  that  it  is  all 
the  work  of  the  devil  or  mere  chance  or  the 
blind  result  of  some  mechanism  in  which  we 
are  caught  and  held.  They  will  be  brought 
[227] 


mtt^  and  l^calti^ 


to  see  that  suffering  has  a  higher  and  a  finer 
oflBce  in  human  experience. 

The  church  can  steadily  lift  the  people  out 
of  themselves  into  those  larger  interests  which 
make  any  life  more  normal.  Not  all  the  chronic 
invalidism  in  the  world  is  due  to  an  intensely 
selfish  nature  within,  but  a  very  great  deal  of 
it  is  due  to  just  that.  Those  persons  who  insist 
upon  continuing  to  dwell  in  their  griefs,  their 
troubles  and  their  disappointments,  when  the 
time  has  arrived  for  an  advance,  are  in  count- 
less cases  made  ill  by  thus  flying  in  the  fiace  of 
a  law  as  universal  and  as  powerful  as  the  law 
of  gravitation.  The  necessity  which  comes 
for  meeting  new  obligations,  adjusting  our- 
selves to  changed  conditions,  doing  our  duty 
again  on  unwonted  fields,  if  met  and  dis- 
charged, becomes  a  means  of  grace  and  of 
health;  refused,  it  works  untold  ill.  It  is 
for  the  Christian  church  to  make  all  that  plain 
and  to  aid  in  fortifying  the  will  which  has 
gone  lame,  so  that  it  will  take  up  its  load 
and  walk  on,  head  up,  eyes  front,  intent  upon 
victory. 

[228] 


Ci^e  Ci^urcl^  and  M^ta^t 

There  is  no  royal  road,  no  short  cut,  to 
health,  either  by  taking  something  out  of  a 
bottle  or  by  purchased  manipulation;  there 
is  no  short  cut  by  juggling  with  certain  mystic 
phrases  or  by  trying  to  stand  on  one's  head 
through  an  insistence  that  one  believes  what 
his  common  sense  tells  him  all  the  while  is 
incredible.  All  those  curious  cults  to  the 
contrary  notwithstanding,  there  is  no  such 
short  cut  to  sound  health.  It  has  to  be  worked 
out  according  to  law,  and  the  best  results  can 
be  most  surely  attained  where  the  work  is 
done  intelligently  and  systematically,  where 
it  is  done  also  in  serene  reliance  upon  the  great 
fact  that  God  is  working  within  us  to  accom- 
plish His  good  pleasure.  It  is  the  office  of  the 
church  to  make  all  this  clear;  to  teach  the 
people  to  assert,  not  by  jumps  and  jerks,  but 
by  the  steady  thrust  of  their  own  truest  as- 
piration, the  full  potentiality  of  their  natures 
in  the  name  and  by  the  help  of  the  God  who 
loves  them. 

The  very  worship  and  service  of  the  church 
can  be  made,  and  ought  to  be  made,  a  means 
[  229  J 


faitl^  antJ  J^ealtl^ 


of  health.  It  can  be  used  to  develop  interior 
courage  and  high  resolve.  It  can  be  made  an 
opportunity  for  the  influx  of  that  larger  supply 
of  vitality  from  the  great  reservoir  of  spiritual 
energy  so  that  "  as  the  day,  so  shall  our  strength 
be" — the  presence  of  energy  from  within 
meeting  and  balancing  the  pressure  of  obliga- 
tion from  without.  It  is  a  well-known  fact 
that  certain  emotions  have  an  expansive  and 
liberating,  as  well  as  a  steadying  and  strength- 
ening, effect  upon  the  entire  body.  Every  one 
has  had  these  experiences  when  participating 
in  some  nobly  conducted  religious  service.  It 
is  for  the  church  by  the  whole  appeal  of  its 
worship  and  instruction,  by  its  power  in  moral 
renewal  and  in  spiritual  uplift,  to  steadily 
induce  those  states  of  feeling  and  those  atti- 
tudes of  soul  which  thus  make  for  health. 

If  you  will  study  closely  the  relation  of  wor- 
ship and  aspiration,  reflection  and  meditation, 
to  nervous  poise  and  stability,  you  will  under- 
stand how  fruitful  this  line  of  effort  may  be 
made.    It  is  a  doctrine  of  modern  philosophy 

that  God  is  immanent  as  well  as  transcendent, 
[230] 


immanent  in  all  these  forms  of  life;  and  that 
He  is  finding  a  growing  and  maturing  expres- 
sion of  His  beneficent  power  and  purpose  in 
their  advance.  In  the  words  of  Professor 
Josiah  Royce  of  Harvard,  "God  wins  per- 
fection through  expressing  himself  in  the 
finite  life  and  triumphing  over  and  through  its 
very  finitude.  God  means  to  express  himself 
by  winning  us,  through  the  very  triumph  over 
evil,  to  unity  with  the  perfect  life;  and  there- 
fore our  fulfillment  like  our  existence  is  due  to 
the  triumph  of  God  himself."  And  all  this 
is  but  a  far-off  echo  of  that  divine  word  of  the 
Master,  "  In  this  world  ye  shall  have  tribula- 
tion, but  be  of  good  cheer,  I  have  overcome !" 
And  by  virtue  of  this  victory,  at  first  vicarious, 
then  representative,  then  becoming  individu- 
ally effective  by  personal  appropriation,  we 
win  our  own  victories.  Life,  therefore,  is  a 
"continuous  divine  communication.'*  And  it 
is  for  our  worship  and  aspiration,  our  medita- 
tion and  reflection,  to  keep  wide  open  the 
arteries  of  the  soul  for  the  divine  influx  to  the 
end  that  we  may  be  lifted  into  the  joy  and 
[231] 


mt^  anD  J^ealtl^ 


efficiency  of  that  more  abundant  life  the 
Master  came  to  bestow. 

It  was  not  the  pastor  of  a  church,  it  was  not 
a  learned  theologian  in  some  seminary,  but 
the  leading  psychologist  of  America  in  our 
oldest  and  greatest  university  who  said  not 
long  ago,  "The  sovereign  cure  for  worry  is 
religious  faith.  The  tossing  billows  on  the 
fretful  surface  of  the  ocean  leave  the  deep 
places  undisturbed.  And  to  him  who  has  a 
hold  on  the  vaster  and  more  permanent  reali- 
ties the  hourly  vicissitudes  of  his  personal 
destiny  seem  relatively  insignificant."  K  you 
would  gain  that  poise  and  steadiness,  that 
serenity  and  peace,  which  make  for  health 
twenty-four  hours  in  the  day,  you  can  best 
accomplish  it,  according  to  Professor  William 
James,  by  a  personal,  vital  religious  faith, 
making  these  mighty  truths,  these  infinite 
sources  of  help,  your  own  by  daily  utilization. 

I  long  to  see  the  Christian  church  restore  a 

fuller  measure  of  that  warmth  and  vigor,  that 

gladness  and  spontaneity  which  belonged  to 

early  Christianity  in  its  combined  ministry,  to 

[232] 


the  bodies  and  to  the  souls  of  men.  And  I 
believe  it  lies  within  the  power  of  the  church 
of  the  twentieth  century  to  do  just  that,  if  it 
shall  only  learn  to  "discern  the  signs  of  the 
times"  and  to  follow  intelligently  and  trust- 
fully "the  leading  of  the  Spirit." 

It  is  a  pathetic  and  a  significant  scene  which 
stands  recorded  there  in  the  first  gospel.  At 
the  top  of  Mt.  Hermon,  Jesus  was  at  prayer, 
and  His  devotion  reached  that  high  level  of 
intensity  where  His  face  shone  like  the  sun,  and 
the  three  disciples  who  accompanied  Him  felt 
that  they  were  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  heavenly 
companionships.  Down  at  the  foot  of  the 
mountain  the  other  disciples  were  trying  to 
restore  a  nervously  disordered  boy,  brought  to 
them  by  an  agonized  father  in  the  hope  of  se- 
curing relief.  And  the  sad  fact  was,  they  were 
failing  in  their  attempt. 

Then  Jesus  came  down  the  side  of  the  moun- 
tain and  joined  His  efforts  to  theirs,  and  the 
child  was  restored.  "Why  could  not  we  cast 
him  out?"  the  disciples  said  in  self-reproach. 
It  was  because  they  had  been  living  for  that 
[233] 


faftl^  anD  l^taW^ 


hour  apart  from  the  Master  and  in  the  attitude 
of  unbelief  touching  those  potencies  which 
are  invisible  but  mighty  through  God  to  the 
pulling  down  of  strongholds. 

It  may  be  that  the  church  at  the  foot  of  the 
mountain  to-day  has  fallen  too  much  into  the 
way  of  living  apart  from  the  Master,  and  too 
much  in  the  attitude  of  unbelief  touching  the 
nobler,  fuller  service  it  could  render  to  human 
need.  If  this  is  in  any  measure  true,  then  there 
must  be  a  fresh  return  to  Christ  in  a  more 
complete  consecration  of  ability,  in  a  fuller 
recognition  of  the  gracious  content  of  His 
message,  and  in  a  more  active  exercise  of  a 
loving  trust;  then  it  may  be  that  we,  too, 
shall  accomplish  our  dream  and  restore  in 
glorious  measure  that  warmth  and  vigor,  that 
gladness  and  spontaneity  of  early  Christian- 
ity, when  the  lame  man  "at  the  gate  of  the 
Temple  called  Beautiful"  was  set  upon  his 
feet,  when  the  ills  of  many  were  relieved,  and 
when  all  the  burdened  people  heard,  each  in 
his  own  tongue,  the  message  of  Eternal  Life. 


[234] 


REVIEWS  OF 

©oung  ^an's  Mairs 

By  CHARLES  REYNOLDS  BROWN 
"Must  Be  Most  Helpful" 

"  There  will  always  bo  room  for  really  good  books  of  wise 
counsel  to  the  yoani;.  Such  a  book  Is  Charles  R.  Brown's 
*  The  Young  Man's  Affairs.'  In  seven  friendly,  direct  talks, 
full  of  good  sense  and  sympathy,  the  author  discourses  of  the 
young  man's  purpose,  intimates,  books,  money,  recreation,  wife 
and  church,  all  in  such  a  manner  as  must  be  most  helpful  to  his 
readers." — Chicago  ICecord-IIerald. 

"Cannot  Fail  to  Make  an  Appeal" 

"  The  really  distinguishing  characteristics  of  these  talks  are 
the  clear  understanding  they  exhibit  of  young-man  life,  and  the 
quaint,  picturesque  forcefulness  with  which  the  advice  they 
contain  is  presented.  A  strong  vein  of  humor  runs  through 
them  which  cannot  fail  to  make  an  appeal  to  young  men." — Jf. 
Y.  Times  /Saturday  Book  Review, 

"A  Book  that  is  Worth  While" 

"Here  is  a  book  that  is  worth  while;  into  it  some  serious, 
resourceful,  aspiring  man  has  put  his  truest  thought,  his  deepest 
insight,  his  highest  resolve,  his  holiest  yearning." — The  West- 
minuter. 

"Earnest  and  Thoughtful" 

"To  the  young  man  who  is  seeking  advice  the  book  can  be 
recommended  as  earnest  and  thoughtful." — Louisville  Courier- 
Journal. 

"  Written  with  Common  Sense  " 

"This  is  an  excellent  book  for  any  young  man,  for  it  is 
written  in  a  sympathetic  spirit  and  with  common  sense." — The 
Living  Church. 

"  Intimate  and  Witty  " 

"  Dr.  Brown  writes  in  an  intimate,  witty  way,  and  his 
essays,  which  are  full  of  practical  suggestions  bound  to  make 
an  impression  upon  the  mind  of  the  reader,  are  very  pleasant 
reading,  too." — The  San  Francisco  Evening  Post. 

UNIFORM    WITH    THIS    VOLUME 

§1.00  net.     By  mail,  §1.10 


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